The Vale of Happiness

"The Vale of Happiness" is a story of a young artist, coming into his own in present-day Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Descended from a family of Afro-Dominican immigrants who moved to the neighborhood in the 1950s, our main character struggles to express the growing feelings of helplessness and rage spreading throughout his community, in the face of rapid gentrification.

The title references the Lecrin Valley, "vale of happiness" in Arabic, a lush river valley in the mountains of Granada, Spain – site of the last Moorish occupation. For seven centuries the Moors ruled much of Western Europe, and the surrender of Granada to Catholic Spain in 1492, would set the stage for a global shift in power.