Virtual Weitzman School Talk | Been Here: A Virtual "Corner Talk" on Black Urbanism, Design, and Planning

Wednesday, July 1, 2020
12:00pm – 1:00pm (ET)

How is Black life generative in the design and planning of cities? What are the paths forward for a discourse and practice of Black Urbanism? How are Black urbanists defining themselves and the often overlooked blindspot of Blackness in relation to the larger urbanist professions?

Join the Weitzman School of Design Office of Development and Alumni Relations to hear speakers Dr. Matthew Jordan Miller, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Weitzman School and Sara Zewde, principal, Studio Zewde, engage with some of these important questions. The talk will be moderated by Mark Gardner (MArch’00), principal, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects, professor of Architectural Practice & Society, School of Constructed Environments at Parsons the New School, and member of the Weitzman School Board of Overseers.

Registration Required
Log-in information will be sent to all registered individuals.

About the Speakers:

Matthew Jordan Miller, PhD, is a cultural geographer, visual anthropologist, and urban design researcher based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. Dr. Miller's teaching and research focuses on animating public space, Black resilience & sustainability, and visual storytelling. His first forthcoming book, A Palm Growing in Concrete: The Business of Black Belongingness (Penn Press, Fall 2021) explores the transdisciplinary notion of Black urbanism by mapping how Blackness influences small businesses and placemaking in Los Angeles. Miller’s street photography has been commissioned by the University of Washington in Seattle and the Weitzman School of Design. He is a noted Afrofuturist, profiled in The New York Times and The Philadelphia Tribune, an Emerging Scholar at the Penn Institute for Urban Research. Before and outside of academia, Miller engages in politics and public service: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Stockton, the National Endowment for the Arts, and most recently as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Pennsylvania.

Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm in New York City practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. The studio is devoted to exploring the "aesthetics of being" and creating enduring places where people belong. Sara holds a master’s of landscape architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University. She also serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Mark L. Gardner, AIA, NOMA, (MArch '00), is a principal at Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects. Located in New York City, Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects is an award-winning design practice and studio that works across scales from product design to interiors to buildings. Mr. Gardner has led many of Jaklitsch / Gardner’s design initiatives, and works to best understand the role of design as a social practice. His firm has won an AIA National Honor Award and numerous AIANY, NOMA and Architizer design awards. The practice is currently working with a non-profit partner on a Honey Bee Study Center in Dodoma, Tanzania. Mr. Gardner is the Assistant Professor of Architectural Practice and Society at the School of the Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School. Mr. Gardner is on the Board of Overseers for the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School Of Design, where he is helping the school study issues of diversity and inclusion. He also currently serves on the Board of Made in Brownsville, a nonprofit on a mission to reduce the number of disconnected youth in Brownsville, Brooklyn by lowering their barriers to entry to the STEAM professions and increasing their relevant experience in the innovation economy. Mr. Gardner is a Past President and currently serves as Advocacy Chair for nycobaNOMA, the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. He is a member of the AIANY Exhibition Committee and Past Co-Chair and current member of the AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee, which he helped to restart with Venesa Alicea. He is Vanguard Member of the Van Alen Institute’s Board of Trustees and a Fellow of the Urban Design Forum.