Toward Camden

Romero, a professor of American Literature and American Studies at Sonoma State University, combines incisive political commentary, cultural criticism, and memoir in her vibrant debut, a collection of essays about her hometown of Camden, N.J. She considers the city’s long history, from being a stop along the middle passage during the Atlantic slave trade to contemporary waterfront revitalization projects, as well as the effects of displacement, gentrification, urban renewal, and policing in a city beset with poverty, blight, and violence. In “Demolition Futures,” she visits her childhood home and reflects on the changing landscape, wondering what it would “mean to dwell at a different meaning of Camden’s unthinkable, its vacant lands.” In “Halfway Houses,” she visits the Walt Whitman House and considers the life and work of Eleanor Ray, a woman who lived next door and curated it. Along the way, Romero references a slew of artists, including photographer Camilo Jose Vergara and writer Fred Moten, tactfully blending a sharp critical eye with a memoirist’s moving touch. Elegiac yet hopeful, this meditation is full of power. (Oct.)