Toni L. Griffin | The Abele Lecture

The inaugural Abele Lecture in Design & Policy at the University of Pennsylvania will be an evening fireside chat with Professor Toni L. Griffin and moderated by Dr. Matthew Kenyatta. Named for the trailblazing 20th-century architect Julian Francis Abele (BArch1902), the Abele Lecture explores ongoing conversations and trends in the design world by centering the voices of Black practitioners and other practitioners of color. 

The evening's conversation will center on connecting design with spatial and social (in)justices across American legacy cities. We aim for the evening to be framed through understanding issues intersecting policy and design with reimaginative and reparative visions.

Toni L. Griffin is a Professor in the Practice of urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, leads The Just City Lab, and has spoken across the US & World. She is also the founder of urbanAC, a planning firm that leads complex, transdisciplinary planning and urban design projects for multi-sector clients in cities with long histories of spatial and social injustice. Ms. Griffin received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and a Loeb Fellowship from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has also worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, DC Office of Planning, the City of Newark, & the City College of New York. 

The Lecture will conclude with a reception to continue the conversation between attendees. Although design-centered, the Lecture is open to the public. 

RSVP Required: https://forms.office.com/r/YZZNf0fsJ6

Organized by the Black Planners Society. Co-sponsored by the Weitzman School of Design, American Planning Association - Planning in the Black Community Division, Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, and the Departments of Architecture, Historic Preservation, and City Planning. 

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.