Revised summary of “Fort Greene Dreams”

In “The Place Where We Dwell” 3rd Edition by Juanita But, Mark Noonan, and Sean Scanlan there is an excerpt called “Fort Greene Dreams” taken from “City Kid” by Nelson George.

In this excerpt Nelson George takes us through his accounts of his life when he moved from Jamaica, Queens in the spring of 1985 to 19 Willoughby Avenue in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn until 1992. Nelson uses his growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and time living in Queens to give us a feel of how Fort Greene is like. Being in Fort Greene made his life a lot easier. It was the closest he had been to Manhattan; no longer did he have to make the long train commute from Queens. The crime wasn’t as bad as he had grown up with in the Tilden Projects of Brownsville, although crack was spreading all over Brooklyn, which made Fort Greene affordable enough for him to be able to live lavishly. Unlike Brownsville where he had shared a bedroom and cramped closet with his sister he now had a duplex apartment with more space than he could ever imagine having . Never in his life was he robbed except for his own fault for leaving the door open.

He left the business of hip hop in Queens and immersed himself in music, film, writing, and sex. Fort Greene became internationally known as the place to be for Nelson’s generation of artists. Having parties was a norm for the mix of young and creative minds. The uprising in black culture throughout that period inspired Nelson and kept him working extra hard to keep ahead of the competition. Nelson was able to get a grasp on what kind of writer, lover and son he was; as well to his surprise he developed into a mentor. He did not only write about the artists, but helped them with tough love, collaboration and networking. Many of the artists were successful and others failed.

This role as a mentor gave him an outlook of lessons that he could apply to himself. He wants to achieve “sustained excellence” and by being productive he would ensure to have a full and active life. To him the volume of work is more important than 5 minutes of fame.