Where is the ‘real’ Paris? In popular imagination, Paris has streets lined with stylish cafés and fashion boutiques. In new book Paris is Not Dead: Surviving Hypergentrification in the City of Light, Cole Stangler combines street reportage with recent history and political analysis to paint a true-to-life portrait of a vibrant city. As urban centers evolve, Stangler shows, our collective responsibility to honor and sustain the cultural identities woven within their fabric becomes paramount. In a call to action for lovers of Paris and urban-dwellers everywhere, Stangler, a French-American journalist, and Erin Ogunkeye, a journalist with France 24, will locate the heart of the city of lights in its working class history, and reveal the mechanisms at work pricing residents out of their homes. 

Praise for Paris is Not Dead:

“Cole Stangler succeeds wonderfully in capturing the contradictions of the most visited city in the world. Paris is finally introduced as it is: the heart of the conflicting transformation of Europe’s identity, and the place of a fascinating reinvention inspired by its margins.” —Rokhaya Diallo, writer, filmmaker, and activist

“Paris Is Not Dead reveals that the causes of so much social unrest are the harsh living conditions and the punishing wage-rent ratio. . . . [Stangler] looks back to the historic roots of social conflict and is witness to the creative vitality of the oppressed.” —Edmund White, author of The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris

Learn more: 

Read articles by Cole in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Nation, 

Watch Cole’s appearances on Democracy Now! and France24. 

About the speakers:

Cole Stangler is a journalist based in Marseille, France. A contributor to The Nation, Jacobin, and the international news network France 24, he has also published work in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. He is the author of Paris Is Not Dead.

Erin Ogunkeye grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, but has spent more time living in Paris than any other city. She studied French law before realizing she wanted to feel a closer connection to the rest of the world by following, relaying and breaking down current events; perhaps not too differently from the way a lawyer connects with a jury. She is an anchor at France 24 and presents Live From Paris in the mornings.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Stangler and Ogunkeye will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Copies of Paris is Not Dead will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.

Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.