{"id":9133,"date":"2018-10-24T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T23:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=9133"},"modified":"2018-12-24T09:17:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T14:17:50","slug":"tory-bullock-gentrification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/10\/24\/tory-bullock-gentrification\/","title":{"rendered":"Tory Bullock\u2019s \u2018Gentrification Game\u2019 Aims To \u2018Let You Feel What Gentrification Feels Like\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tory Bullock calls his latest project, \u201cThe Gentrification Game,\u201d<\/a> \u201cA life-sized game for a life-sized problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 25 and 26 and Nov. 1 and 2, from 4 to 7 p.m., he\u2019ll transform a former bank that’s now Dudley Neighbors Inc. at 572 Columbia Road, in Boston\u2019s Uphams Corner neighborhood, into a game space of cardboard-box buildings. Participation is free. Drop in and play for five to 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have two cardboard communities. One side is just beat up old boxes, not a lot of care is put into them,\u201d garbage, Bullock explains. \u201cA neighborhood in transition, a neighborhood people might get interested in buying property.\u201d The other side offers \u201ca pristine path\u201d with carefully detailed buildings.<\/p>\n

One neighborhood is home to a liquor store while the other has a wine emporium. One side has a check cashing business and a torn-down theater, while the other has \u201can actual bank\u201d and a pristine theater. Bullock asks, \u201cCan you survive in my fictional transitional neighborhood?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gentrification Game,\u201d Bullock says, \u201cwill let you feel what gentrification feels like to people who actually live in that community.\u201d And it aims to let folks on the wrong end of gentrification know \u201cthat feeling that they\u2019re feeling is real, it isn\u2019t something they made up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old resident of Boston\u2019s Roxbury neighborhood studied theater at the Boston Arts Academy high school. \u201cThat unlocked my creativity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But, he says, \u201cWhile doing theater, I started to see it was kind of fake to me.\u201d Specifically, when he was performing, the audience might embrace high ideals, \u201cbut the second we would come out into the lobby, everyone was back in their social group.\u201d He wanted to make art that more directly fostered change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat started a mission where I just started doing things,\u201d Bullock says. The things involved fun stunts, pop-up guerrilla performance art, \u201cquirky\u201d viral videos fueled by his motto \u201clove people, make art.\u201d<\/p>\n