Ariana Faye
Allensworth

Anti-Eviction Mapping Project

ROLE(S)

Core Member
NYC Chapter Co-Founder


YEAR2014-Present

Documenting Dispossession and Resistance to Build Tenant Power



In 2013, at the height of the Bay Area’s second Tech Boom, the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP) was born around a table at the San Francisco Tenants Union.

It arose as a critical response to the wave of no-fault evictions sweeping through urban areas, driven by aggressive real estate speculation, racial profiling, and luxury development. The project began as a response to a critical need for accessible, actionable data that tenant organizers could use to fight the forces driving gentrification and displacement.

COUNTERMAPPING
We at the AEMP began by mapping no-fault evictions to illuminate the connections between real estate speculation, technology corporations, property flipping, racial profiling, and luxury development. This foundational work sought not only to transform data into actionable tools for tenant movement organizers but also to challenge the prevailing belief that gentrification is an inevitable aspect of urban life.
FIG.¹
By exposing the entities that exploit loopholes in housing law to displace tenants and making such critical information accessible to the public, we illustrate how the financialization of housing converts evictions into strategic business tactics.













FIG.¹
INSTALLATION VIEW: TAKE THIS HAMMER: ART + MEDIA ACTIVISM FROM THE BAY AREA, PRESENTED BY YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS (2016)
STORYTELLING TO BUILD COMMUNITY POWER
Initially focusing on quantitative mapping, we quickly realized its limitations in documenting the complex social and political realities of displacement, which cannot be fully expressed through mere dots on a map. This catalyzed our growing portfolio of narrative-based work—including online maps, oral histories, videos, murals, and zines—that seek to bring fullness to the realities of the eviction crisis.



FIG.²

Our storytelling projects give voice to those evicted by networks of shell companies, to those experiencing increased racial profiling, to those who fought their evictions through direct action and won.


FIG.³
FIG.⁴
PHOTOGRAPHY
FIG.²
SPREAD  FROM (DIS)LOCATION: BLACK EXODUS, AN AEMP PUBLICATION PROJECT EXPLORING THE PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBLE FUTURES OF BLACK SAN FRANCISCO
FIG.³
IMAGE OF AEMP’S NARRATIVES OF DISPLACEMENT AND RESISTANCE ORAL HISTORY MAP FEATURING STORIES OF EVICTION AND GENTRIFICATION, BUT ALSO RESISTANCE AND ORGANIZING ACCROSS THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, NEW YORK CITY, AND LOS ANGELES.
FIG.⁴
COVER OF NOS CUIDAMOS, A BI-LINGUAL ZINE PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH CITIES FOR PEOPLE NOT FOR PROFIT DOCUMENTING STORIES OF HOW RESIDENTS OF BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN ORGANIZED TO MEET EACH OTHER’S NEEDS DURING COVID-19.
BACK TO HOME