Black and Brown Lives in Green Spaces: Race and Place in Urban America
This event is part of “Equity in Action: A Conversation Series,” a dynamic lineup of public events exploring the interlocking issues that define and shape our racial and economic realities.
Green spaces: They’re often as segregated as our cities. Invisible and tangible barriers isolate parks, community gardens, wilderness areas, and urban agriculture, especially from people of color. And yet, there’s a rich tradition of black and brown ownership of green space in the Chicago region. Join us for a conversation about access to environmental goods, self-sufficient food and herbal medicine, violence, history, exclusion, and co-creating public spaces.
Featured Panelists:
- Tonika Lewis Johnson, Chicago native and founder of the Folded Map project
Juanita Irizarry, Executive Director, Friends of the Parks
- Brian McCammack, the Beerly Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Chair of Urban Studies at Lake Forest College and the author of Landscapes of Hope: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The program will begin at 6 p.m., with time to mingle before and after. The cost of the event is $15 for members of the general public and $12 for MPC Donors. Admission includes snacks, soft drinks, wine and beer.
If you have any additional questions or need special accommodations, please contact us at events@metroplanning.org.
“Equity in Action” Conversation Series
Aided by more than 100 advisors, the Metropolitan Planning Council, in May 2018, released a roadmap for a more racially equitable Chicago region. As we continue working closely with partners to implement the two dozen recommendations in the roadmap, we reflect on one of our biggest learnings from this journey: the value of creating and elevating public dialogue on the interlocking issues that define and shape our racial and economic realities. MPC and partners present Equity in Action: A Conversation Series—a dynamic lineup of public events to celebrate progress, examine issues, and hold ourselves accountable for advancing the change that’s needed. For more information, click here.
The Equity in Action series is presented with generous support from The Field Foundation.
Event Partners
About Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college, located just 30 miles north of Chicago. This event is a a part of the Metropolitan Planning Council’s developing partnership with Lake Forest College, as part of its “Humanities 2020” project. The project—which is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—aims to help students and faculty contribute to local museum exhibits, work on social justice initiatives and develop public programming related to race relations in Chicago.
About the Newberry Library
The Newberry, open to the public without charge, is an independent research library dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge, especially in the humanities. The Newberry acquires and preserves a broad array of special collections research materials relating to the civilizations of Europe and the Americas. It promotes and provides for their effective use, fostering research, teaching, publication, and life-long learning, as well as civic engagement.
About Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race Riots Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race Riots is a year-long initiative to heighten the 1919 Chicago race riots in the city’s collective memory, engaging Chicagoans in public conversations about the legacy of the most violent week in Chicago history. Funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities “Community Conversations” grant, the project is being coordinated by the Newberry Library in partnership with 13 other Chicago institutions. Chicago 1919 aims to address difficult history, to come together in recognition and reconciliation, and to imagine possible ways forward.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship opportunities for this conversation series and specific event are available!
For more information, contact:
Janet Myers
Vice President of Philanthropy
jmyers@metroplanning.org
312.863.6010