Next City Event: SPACES & PLACES 2021: Visions of Black-led Communities

Join Next City for SPACES & PLACES 2021: Visions of Black-led Communities – a virtual film festival. The festival is pay-what-you-wish to attend.

SPACES & PLACES will assemble urbanists, planners and community leaders for a two-day event of virtual learning and exchange.

SPACES & PLACES, born of the necessity for Black communities to be acknowledged within the built environment, embarks on a unique film festival convening for 2021. Now in its fifth year, the annual grassroots (un)conference will be hosted virtually in partnership with Next City who is proudly supporting the event for the third year. This year’s theme, Visions of Black-led Communities, centers the past, present and future of Black leadership in rural U.S. communities, highlighting utopian planning and community self-determination.

DAY 1 | August 5th | 12 pm to 1:30 pm ET

Soul City

Soul City is a planned community in North Carolina that was first proposed in 1969 by Floyd McKissick, a civil rights leader and director of the Congress of Racial Equality. Soul City was one of thirteen model city projects under the Urban Growth and New Community Development Act. Soul City was intended to be a community built and open to all races, but placed emphasis on providing opportunities for minorities and the poor.

A 30 min film screening of Soul City will be presented followed by a panel discussion.

Speakers

Facilitator: Danielle Purifoy, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Floyd McKissick Jr., NC Utilities Commission, former NC Senator

Kofi Boone, FASLA, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University College of Design

Day 2 | August 6th | 12pm to 1:30pm ET

Freedom Hill

Princeville, NC is the first town incorporated by freed, enslaved Africans in America located in North Carolina. Before its incorporation, residents called it ‘Freedom Hill,’ gradually establishing a self-sufficient, all Black town. The historical town has been inundated with flooding over the centuries.

The session will highlight the community of Princeville including the premiere trailer of the upcoming documentary short Freedom Hill. The session will also be followed by a panelist Q+A and the opportunity for participants to break out into “deep dive” discussions on community preservation as a means to protect and strengthen culture.

Speakers

Facilitator: Cierra Hinton, Executive Director-Publisher at Scalawag

Kofi Boone, FASLA, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University College of Design

Resita Cox, Director, Freedom Hill Documentary

Marquetta Dickens, Director, Freedom Org

Savonola “Savi” Horne, Executive Director, Land Loss Prevention Network

1.5 CM APA credits are available for each event. You must register separately for each event.

Both events are pay-what-you-wish to register. Pay any amount that you would like or nothing at all. We also accept both Apple and Google Pay. Those who become sustaining members of at least $5 a month, or who make a one-time donation of at least $20, may receive “20 Best Solutions of 2020” — Next City’s solutions of the year magazine. Your contribution toward this webinar will be used to find even more amazing guests, cover hosting fees and organize seminars like this one more frequently. A video of the webinar will be made available to those who register.

Partners:

Next City | http://nextcity.org

APA Division of Housing and Community Development | housing.planning.org

Scalawag Magazine | scalawagmagazine.org/

BlackSpace Urbanist Collective | www.blackspace.org