On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, our Urban Futures Lab Fellows hosted a "Happy Hour" event where they reflected on their first year and shared their ambitions and dreams for the future. Fellows created a six-word story, an aspirational job description honing in on the type of...
ASPIRATIONS: From Purpose to Action /// Urban Futures Lab Module 6 began in September 2017 – the mid-point of the two-year arc of the fellowship. As an inflection point, the Module asked the Fellows to reflect on their first year, reconsider their professional interests and goals, and...
By: Omar Vargas // With each module, Fellows dig into readings, exercises, conversations, and reflections around a theme. The focus of Module 5 was Leadership. It was 2 in the morning and I had just come back from a concert. Exhausted, I sat on the closest sofa I...
By: Andy Alvarez // With each module, Fellows dig into readings, exercises, conversations, and reflections around a theme. The focus of Module 5 was Leadership. I have always found community engagement to be a tough thing to do. I grew up in East LA, a community that is often...
By: Christopher Barahona // With each module, Fellows dig into readings, exercises, conversations, and reflections around a theme. The focus of Module 5 was Leadership. I’m always the mediator in my family and all social groups. What I mean by that is that most people in my life tend...
By: Shirley Ramirez // With each module, Fellows dig into readings, exercises, conversations, and reflections around a theme. The focus of Module 5 was Leadership. To just pick up the phone and call someone is a daunting task. I have to continuously recite what I’m going to say...
LEADERSHIP: Mapping Values, Staying on “the Balcony”, Leading with Awareness /// How do our values influence the choices we make? How do we align our goals and the goals of others? How do we understand how civic initiatives connect with community interests? With our daily lives? How...
By: Andy Alvarez --- Reflections from Open Engagement 2017 – JUSTICE It was my first time ever being in the Midwest and I was amazed at the type of city that Chicago is. This vast, diverse, and progressive metropolitan city has a completely different feel to my home...
By: Christopher Barahona --- Reflections from Open Engagement 2017 – JUSTICE In all honesty, I had a preconceived notion of what the Midwest was going to be like. That notion was of a city, Chicago, with a lack of diversity and lack of prominent cultural landmarks to see....
By: Omar Vargas --- Reflections from Open Engagement 2017 – JUSTICE This April, the Urban Futures Lab Fellows had the opportunity to present on our fellowship at Open Engagement, a conference in Chicago. Open Engagement is an annual artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around socially engaged...