Urban Uprising: Re-Imagining The City

9:00 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.

As demonstrated by Hurricane Sandy and the current Great Recession, preparing cities to confront the key challenges of the 21st century—environmental, economic, social and political--is more vital than ever before.

On December 1, 2012 the Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons The New School for Design is co-hosting with CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture and Politics, The Right to the City Coalition, Growing Roots, and The Brecht Forum the second day of a two-day conference that brings together architects, activists, urban designers and planners from around the country to re-imagine the city for the next hundred years.  

“Hurricane Sandy has exposed the longstanding socio-economic and environmental crisis that New York is in,” said Miguel Robles-Duran, Director of the Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons. “It is our responsibility as designers and engaged citizens to find new directions that radically depart from how the city is being built today, and participate in common forms of knowledge that support the claim for our right to the city."  

The event will provide an opportunity for participants from more than 80 civic organizations to collaborate and develop ideas for how to affect change. By the end of the day, each group will have developed its own strategic action plan to radically alter the way a city works and who it serves.

Schedule, Saturday, December 1

 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.- Registration 

10:00 to 11:30 a.m.- Opening Plenary
 
Miguel Robles-Duràn - Urbanist, Director of the Urban Ecologies, New School
Ruth Wilson Gilmore - Associate Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center
Rachel LaForest - Executive Director, The Right to the City Alliance
Peter Marcuse - Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University 
Amaka Okechukwu with Matthew Birkhold - Co-founders, Growing Roots 
Nancy Romer - General Coordinator, The Brooklyn Food Coalition

11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.- Breakout Sessions 
These facilitated sessions will focus on building a holistic vision for a more democratic, sustainable and just New York City.

1:45 to 2:30 p.m.- Lunch Break

2:30 to 4:15 p.m.: Breakout Sessions  
 These facilitated sessions ask the question, “What would your work look like if it was devoted to building new communities and a new city?” Participants will discuss the role of transformative demands and of building alternative institutions in realizing a collective vision for New York City.

4:30 to 5:30 p.m.- Wrap Up      

To see the full conference schedule, including the November 30 agenda, visit www.urban-uprising.org.

Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall, 66 West 12th Street

Admission:
Pre-register for Urban Uprising here:  https://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/register?id=12371&reset=1