Squatting, Art, and Gentrification

Minor Compositions Podcast Episode 5: Squatting, Art, and Gentrification with Clarrie Pope and Alan W. Moore

For this episode we have a discussion with Clarrie Pope and Alan W Moore around squatting, art, and gentrification, as well as a range of related topics. The idea is to explore these topics, but coming from different angles, for instance how writing a graphic novel about squatting is different from a personal account or political or academic writing on the same topic. How do these different modes of writing affect the stories that we tell, and how we can communicate with different kinds of people? 

Welcome Home was written by sisters Clarrie and Blanche Pope, and is inspired by their experience in squatting and housing struggles, as well Blanche’s time spent working in care homes. They want to give readers insight into the class, race and gender politics involved in both through a humorous look at the way in which these issues affect the minutiae of people’s lives.

Alan W. Moore worked as a critic, artist and organizer in NYC for 30 years. He worked with the artists’ group Colab, and co-directed ABC No Rio and the MWF Video Club. He took a PhD in Art History from CUNY in 2000, and published Art Gangs with Autonomedia in 2011. He began to study squatting in Europe in 2009, publishing the zine House Magic (2009-16). He co-edited Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces (Other Forms/JoAAP), and wrote Occupation Culture (Autonomedia), both in 2015. In 2022 he published Art Worker, a memoir (JoAAP). He lives in Madrid, and blogs at “Occupations & Properties” and “Art Gangs.”

Opening  / Outro song: “Bello e impossibile” by Gianna Nannini