Resilience for All with Busboys and Poets
Date and Time
Aug 29, 2018 6:30 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Aug 29, 2018 6:30 pm
450K
Join Island Press and Busboys and Poets for a book talk and signing with Resilience for All author Barbara Brown Wilson. In many vulnerable neighborhoods, structural racism and classism prevent residents from having a seat at the table when decisions are made about their community. In an effort to overcome power imbalances and ensure local knowledge informs decision-making, a new approach to community engagement is essential. In Resilience for All, Barbara Brown Wilson provides the tools and inspiration needed to do so, and charts a path forward that is driven by social equity, vibrancy, and hope. This event will highlight how community-driven design projects in underserved communities can not only change the built world, but also provide opportunities for residents to build their own capacities. Barbara will be joined by Vaughn Perry, the Equitable Devleopment Manager for the 11th Street Bridge Park, and Omar Hakeem, Design Director at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, in a discussion that will highlight examples of equitable resilience work in Washington, DC.
About the Author (and guests)
BARBARA BROWN WILSON
Barbara Brown Wilson’s research and teaching focus on the ethics, theory, and practice of sustainable community design and development, and on the history of urban social movements. Wilson's current research projects include understanding how grassroots community networks reframe public infrastructure in more climate and culturally appropriate ways across the U.S., and helping to elevate the standards of evaluation for community engaged design around notions of social and ecological justice. Her research is often change-oriented—she collaborates with real community partners to identify opportunities for engaged and integrated sustainable development. She is a member of the Equity Collective, whose work is currently featured in the Cooper Hewitt Museum's By the People: Designing a Better America Exhibition. Alongside Architect Jeana Ripple, Wilson is coordinating the community engaged aspects of the Public Art Installation for the ArtHouse Social Kitchen Project in Gary, Indiana. She is also working as a researcher, an educator, and a board member of the Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) with their leadership to identify venues where PHA residents can more actively engage in and shape their communities. In those collective posts, Wilson is serving as a resource ally to PHA's new Youth Leadership in Land Use program that brings in resident youth from Friendship Court as valued members of the design team for the Redevelopment project currently underway in their neighborhood.
VAUGHN PERRY
Equitable Development Manager
Vaughn Perry is the Equitable Development Manager. His role is to oversee and implement the deliverables for the Equitable Development Plan. A D.C. native, Vaughn has been a resident and homeowner in Ward 8 for over 16 years. Vaughn’s research interests focus on ecojustice pedagogies, community engagement and green job/skill development.
Previously, Vaughn worked for the Anacostia Watershed Society, where he led the National Capital Region - Watershed Stewards Academy providing community leaders with the resources to serve as a point in their community on storm water issues. Vaughn holds a Bachelor’s degree in IT from Strayer University and a Master’s Degree in Project Management from George Washington University.
vaughn@bridgepark.org | 202.889.5901 x208
https://www.bridgepark.org/about-11th-st-bridge-park
OMAR HAKEEM
Design Director - Washington, D.C.
Omar Hakeem, AIA, LEED AP is Design Director at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. He is working to build an organizational wide design practice. He is based in Washington, DC working to bring greater social and environmental equality through thoughtful design and planning. From 2013-2015, Omar lead the Rio Grande Valley office focusing on a geographical, social cultural frontier by addressing the systemic poverty, health and resilience issue that plague the region.
Through these efforts he has completed award winning affordable housing, rapid response disaster housing prototypes, urban bike and pedestrian infrastructure, regional drainage improvements and community based rural planning initiatives. Omar’s passion for design has taken him from the cloud forests of Costa Rica to the ravaged communities of the Gulf Coast and many places in between. His professional practice has also included supporting large arts and cultural projects at Skidmore Owings & Merrill in DC, and prefabricated modular buildings at Alchemy Architects in Minnesota.
Originally from Washington, DC, he received his B.S. of Architecture from SUNY Buffalo as well as a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Sustainability Design from the University of Minnesota in 2009.
http://www.bcworkshop.org/omar-hakeem
This event is co-sponsored by Island Press, founded in 1984 to stimulate, shape, and communicate the information that is essential for solving environmental problems. Today, with more than 1,000 titles in print and some 30 new releases each year, it is the nation’s leading publisher of books on environmental issues. Island Press is driving change by moving ideas from the printed page to public discourse and practice. Island Press’s emphasis is, and will continue to be, on transforming objective information into understanding and action. For more information and further updates be sure to visit www.islandpress.org.
