Pencils and Erasers

  This week in Sweat by Lynn Nottage we’ve come to find out that countless Olstead Factory jobs are going to be replaced. And it’s important to consider that some stories aren’t rewritten with pencils and erasers, but with policies and trade deals. The word NAFTA continuously lurks in the background of Reading, Pennsylvania, and its echo is just enough to shake the entire town. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement was meant to open up global trade through loose restrictions but instead closed numerous factories just like the one in Reading. Workers in Sweat don’t follow the news much and don’t understand the politics behind NAFTA, but they begin to feel its effects every single day. The story we’ve been tuning into has transformed from a story about friendship and conflict to one about power, profit, and survival, showing how the decisions made in D.C. and the Mexican government can ruin the stability of an entire community. When characters like Tracy and Cynthia argue ...

  Just like an old notebook, cities can get messy over time. Cracks and flaws come about in sidewalks, buildings, roads, and even opportunities. But a lot of times, those cracks aren’t the end of the world, they just serve as another chance to rebuild cleaner, safer, and stronger, a chance to erase and rewrite, not throw away. Gentrification usually gets a bad reputation, and for obvious reasons. No one wants to see their home become grotesque, families forced to move out, or rents raised; but not every correction has to be punishing, just like revising a draft, some changes actually help make the story clearer and more spectacular, some changes actually give the community a new life instead of destroying it. The new communities that gentrification brings aren’t bland, or cultureless. It brings safer streets, better schools, new and improved parks, more businesses, and a lot more job opportunities to communities that didn’t even have access to those before. It literally turns t...