Shantel Palacio

Shantel Palacio is a “Nehemiah Baby” who grew up in one of the first Brownsville homes. A Phd.candidate in Leadership & Policy Studies at the University of New Hampshire, she has devoted her academic career to analyzing the legacies of housing discrimination and grassroots organizing that have shaped her community for decades. Shantel’s website “Brownsvillain” documents stories of resilience coming out of one of the most poorly understood and stigmatized neighborhoods in New York City. In her oral history, she reflects on Nehemiah’s historic significance in the context of the current NYC housing crisis.

Interview by Phillip Norman