Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia This quickly shifting narrative introduces vibrant, appealing characters in brief but three-dimensional sketches, and paints a larger picture of existential efforts and persistence. Murray (2E) just wants to play sidewalk chess in peace, but the old ladies of the Banneker Terrace Committee of Concern want to make him their cause. Neisha (21J), a former aspiring Olympic gymnast, has quit college and returned home to the building, where she has to face a trauma that still haunts her. Mimi's erstwhile assistant, Dary (12H), flirts with a darker line of work. Kandese (3A) suffers losses upon losses, while her boyfriend, perennial follower Najee (24M), dreams of stardom but finds tragedy.
Dallas's school each feature in stories of their own. Dallas (6B), wrestles with her day job as a paraprofessional at the local public school, bemoaning the students' behavior, scorning the young do-gooder teachers and awaiting the school's looming closure. Swan (6B) lives eight floors below, with his mother, marveling at the country's first Black president and wishing he could find his own way out of the hustle. Mimi runs a hair salon out of apartment 14D, spends beyond her means and dreams of a house in the suburbs with her son's father, Swan. These men and women struggle at the edge of making ends meet and cope by various means, including hard work, stiff upper lips, bluffing, bluster and despair. Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, Sidik Fofana's electric debut, consists of eight stories featuring eight residents of a low-income apartment building in Harlem where rents are rising and eviction notices are multiplying.
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