Miles Edwards

Project: Criminal activity in Upper Manhattan throughout the 1970s and 1980s has long been dismissed as chaotic, but it was more than merely a violent means to an end. These activities adhered to a rigid social hierarchy undergirded by complex social and economic systems. Those systems, in turn, required the organization of a complex web of cash-based financial transactions and other record-keeping practices characteristic of accounting in large-scale economic organizations. The goal of this project is to produce a body of work for publication in an academic journal that explores unconventional applications of an otherwise highly regulated profession.

Miles Edwards is a licensed CPA based in Harlem who works with artists, non-profits, small-businesses, and expats to clarify complex tax-related issues. When not untangling tax rules or cleaning up clients’ books, he spends a lot of his time at the New York Public Library, on the tennis court, or practicing calligraphy.