On Thursday, August 24, 2017, we partnered with C.I.C.L.E. and the Pilipino Workers' Center for Taste of Temple Street: Filipino Bites by Bike, presented by Metro. This was a Hidden Hi Fi: Halo-Halo Series event. Together, we biked to various restaurants on Temple and sampled their...
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...
On July 28, 2017, Mike Blockstein's essay, "The Case for Complexity," was published on the Americans for the Arts' ARTSBLOG as part of their Excellence and Equity in Arts for Change blog salon. He writes: Change requires doing things differently, in new, creative, and risk-taking ways. Public Matters...
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...