For my project on gentrification and LGBTQ spaces, I will be specifically focusing on a neighborhood in Miami called Wynwood. This neighborhood has been experiencing gentrification for the past few years and has witnessed a proliferation of gay nightlife events and spaces. In this sense, Wynwood will serve as a case study to my thesis of LGBTQ spaces arising from gentrification of low-income, neighborhoods of color. To flesh out this thesis and case study, I will first provide a theoretical framework and background on this subject. To construct this framework, I will conduct library research and collect literature around gayborhoods and gentrification’s relation to LGBTQ communities. After providing this framework, I will go into the case study of Wynwood. This part of the project will take the shape of a photo essay. As such, I will be collecting photographs that I have taken of Wynwood and LGBTQ spaces/events in it. The photographs will be accompanied and substantiated by excerpts of interviews I will conduct with queer Miami natives who frequent Wynwood’s nightlife.
Lopez’s Comments:
Octavio, like a you situate your study and reflect on the significance of doing research with in a LGBTQ space, such as Wynwood. I will focus my comments mostly on your actual methodology. Given that this work was already done, you your methodology should reflect the steps you took to gather your data, which in your case would be photographs. I would like to hear more about how you located certain spaces, how you went about taking photographs, how you chose who to photograph, and lastly, which photos are you hoping to respond to in your photo essay. Because this is in some way a type of ethnography, you should also think about your own position with in the context of the space that you are studying. You don’t have to rewrite this, but it should be documented in the final work that you submit.