CRITICAL RACE

Colloqate Design: Blights Out

“Our original goal was to purchase a two-story blighted property, to connect it with a local community land trust, and to transform it into a multipurpose center with permanently affordable housing and community organizing space––a model a new mode of 'development' and a hub for the generation of art, dialogue and action in support of housing as a human right. For four years, we worked to acquire a blighted property directly from home owners, person to person, without participating in the predatory housing auction market, which has roots in the system of slavery in New Orleans.”

A project of the design justice nonprofit Colloqate, the Blights Out collective ran a number of creative campaigns between 2014-2108, centered on housing justice in New Orleans. Blights Out brought together activists, designers, artists, and organizing partners to generate dialogue between residents, strengthen the movement for permanently affordable housing, and increase legibility of the city’s confusing and corrupt property acquisition and housing systems. Actions included art installations, “performed architecture”, a Design as Protest charrette, and year-long billboard exposé about housing discrimination and gentrification in New Orleans. 

A Voice at the Table

“Within a hyper-radicalized political climate, too often Blackness has been co-opted and misrepresented as a uniform political identity. On a daily basis, Black womxn are consistently existing in social and professional spaces where their full identities are challenged through perpetual misrepresentation, stereotypes, and silencing. These experiences breed negative implications on one’s self perception, increasing common feelings around isolation that has a significant impact on one’s mental health and ability to thrive in all other aspects of their livelihoods.”

A Voice at the Table is a research initiative begun in 2019, and while focused on spaces, design, and Black womxn community leadership in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, the project recognizes common themes present in communities both nationally and internationally. The user interface of the project’s website includes research methodologies, interviews and survey responses from 125 Black womxn artists, organizers, and entrepreneurs throughout Roxbury, affirmative space discussions, and a future-oriented design framework that challenges outcome-oriented design expertise and elevates the multidimensionality of Black womxn and their role in city space design that is Black affirming, healing, dynamic, culture preserving, and liberatory. 

Folded Map Project

“Tonika Lewis Johnson’s Folded Map™ Project visually connects residents who live at corresponding addresses on the North and South Sides of Chicago.* She investigates what urban segregation looks like and how it impacts Chicago residents. What started as a photographic study quickly evolved into a multimedia exploration with video interviews of residents. The project invites audiences to open a dialogue and question how we are all socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions that segregate the city. Her goal? For individuals to understand how our urban environment is structured and its impact on our social networks. She wants to challenge everyone to think about how change may be possible and to contribute to a solution.”