An overpass bridge on City Terrace Dr. with a large banner reading "Local Community Control" Photo by Brisa Aviles While thinking about what could be the theme for my capstone project, I knew it had to involve my neighborhood of City Terrace. Is is a place...
For my Urban Futures Lab Capstone Project, I held a virtual event titled “Skate Safe Digital Resistive Space.” This event strived to amplify the resistive and countercultural ways marginalized groups (specifically skaters who identify as womxn, non-binary+Black, African, or of Color) create space for themselves, especially in...
Rooted in Poetics is a podcast centering diaspora stories from residents of Long Beach’s Cambodia Town, and from folks who have a deep connection to the neighborhood. This is a project that I have wanted to begin for awhile now, and choosing to incubate this...
Urban Futures Lab: Yearbook Edition - Ep 1: This is OUR Time Capsule: One Year in Review https://soundcloud.com/publicmatters/urban-futures-lab-yearbook-edition-ep-1-this-is-our-time-capsule-one-year-in-review/s-gPGSOqw2mLM **For some context, this podcast and its episodes were conceived during the beginning of our quarantine season, and recorded in late April and early May—just a few weeks before...
Urban Futures Lab: Yearbook Edition - Ep 2: What Do You Meme? - Breaking Down the UFL Experience https://soundcloud.com/publicmatters/urban-futures-lab-yearbook-edition-ep-2-what-do-you-meme-breaking-down-the-ufl-experience/s-WDgOSD40L9i **For some context, this podcast and its episodes were conceived during the beginning of our quarantine season, and recorded in late April and early May—just a few weeks...
Urban Futures Lab: Yearbook Edition - Ep 3: The Rose that Grew from Concrete/The Lotus Rising from the Mud https://soundcloud.com/publicmatters/urban-futures-lab-yearbook-edition-the-rose-that-grew-from-concretethe-lotus-rising-from-the-mud/s-VKJHeA2cmy6 **For some context, this podcast and its episodes were conceived during the beginning of our quarantine season, and recorded in late April and early May—just a few...
The day I heard the Urban Futures Lab Fellows would be giving an ABSTalk for the Public Matters family, deep, deep anxiety set in. What is an ABSTalk? Well, it’s a Public Matters spin on the popular TEDTalk series, but about half the time (10 minutes)....
Public Matters is a creative civic engagement studio that forms strong partnerships through unconventional measures as a way to redress social ills. My involvement as a Fellow in the two-year long Urban Futures Lab Fellowship definitely falls under this purview. This round’s cohort, which consists...
Imagine one day out of the blue somebody asks you, “What motivates you in life?” At first we stutter and think about the question so deeply that we come up with many things, or nothing at all. When I was asked that question for ABSTalk, an...
As we conclude this month’s module, I realize that the topic “creative civic engagement” has come to mean many things to me. First and most importantly, it emphasizes the importance of incorporating community voice into public projects. Although this framework may seem simple, it requires...