Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe – 224 pages
Book Blurb:
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe: Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.
As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer–just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed–Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe was a beautifully written account of a young girl’s summer living in the Chicago projects as they were being torn down around her. Briefly delving into the Chicago Housing Authority and the slow destruction of the Roger Taylor homes was eye opening, heartbreaking, and tragic.
This book makes you think about what you know is all you know and for Fe Fe and her friends they are learning to navigate the system as best they can. Their friendships are fragile and their fear is palpable as boys and girls are thrown into life altering choices regarding gangs, drugs, and violence.
These homes were a front for institutionalized racism, yet it was all they had, therefore all they knew. I learned a lot from reading this book as I moved to the Chicago area with little to no knowledge about the projects. The author has seamlessly and compellingly penned a story that honors the family unit and sheds lightness and closure at the end of the book.
I was Googling photos, YouTube videos and more to learn about this topic. This succinct novel packed a punch and will give book clubs much to chew on.
Quotes I liked:
We didn’t know then that the practice of burying emotions created adults who’d struggle to build meaningful relationships; some of us would eventually completely forget how to access true feelings.”
“Maybe the worst part about growing up in public housing is that people think your body is public too. That even before you are born, your Black body already belongs to the owners of the land.”
“My brother had walked out on us, had left us for the streets. That day, me and Mama got new names too: them other niggas.”
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