Abstract

Gentrification transforms neighborhoods and erodes intimacies, creating spaces of displacement and exclusivity. Where, then, is justice in a gentrifying city? In this article, I argue that sound offers an opening into a fleeting—“ephethereal”—justice; that is, a portmanteau of ephemeral and ethereal. This is a justice that is short lived and ephemeral, and yet offers an impression of something not of this world, something ethereal. Drawing on my work on listening to gentrification in Washington, DC, I consider how sound invokes this ephethereal justice and offers us the tools to explore the temporal and spatial contours of liberation.

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