BlackSpace Urbanist Collective

🎊 Today, we celebrate the Black liberatory design — and designers — of Juneteenth. From Galveston, Texas to Black neighborhoods everywhere! — Juneteenth is a time to reflect. What does it mean to really celebrate our freedom? What does it mean to be free in moments where freedom is conditional, and freedom is always a challenge? African Americans have always used these moments of memory to think about where the community has come from and what we’re pursuing and striving towards, as well as taking the time to pass down history and culture. ~ Angela Tate, Curator at NMAAHC 

We’re bringing our national collective members to Chicago for a Collective Convening Weekend — and we wanna see you! See the lineup and grab your free or paid tix: bit.ly/bsoconvening24 Join the co-design exhibit, salon, workshop, or tour to be inspired by: ✨ Black liberatory design methods, ✨ Local Black urbanist projects, and ✨ Black urbanist practitioners. — Why Chicago? As BlackSpace continues to grow we are excited to host our first in-person collective convening in one of the first cousin cities! Established in 2017, BlackSpace Chicago urbanists have been critical to the building of the collective. Over 115 Black urbanists have attended intimate experiences hosted by BlackSpace Chicago over the years and we are excited to bring Black urbanist Chicago back outside! The Collective Convening: 🌇 Strengthens awareness of Chicago’s Black community building. 🛠 Resources national network for Black design & planning vanguards. 🌟 Honors BlackSpace Chicago’s 6 years of local success. 🤑 Prioritizes Black and local Chicago biz (goal 55% of program expenses). Join us as we power build centering local Black design practitioners, entrepreneurs, and friends as well as resources for local Black spaces in Chicago.

There is more time for your organization to apply for a FREE workshop with BlackSpace in collaboration with @nyscouncilonthearts! Want a chance for your organization to work with our Manifesto principles? The second round of applications is now open for cultural, arts, and heritage nonprofits from across NY to receive FREE virtual or in-person design workshops through the summer — rooted in our Black liberatory principles. Read more about the partnership, eligibility, and the workshops. Then, APPLY at this link: https://lnkd.in/ew48pvqe by May 5th the final deadline for this round. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]. Workshops are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

We are excited to announce our New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) first round workshops are in progress! These amazing organizations are the first recipients of the free workshops: GO ART! (Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council), Historic Richmond Town, COMMUNITY ARTS OF ELMIRA INC, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Shaker Heritage Society, John Brown Lives!, and  Just Buffalo Literary Center. We are excited to see the impact of these workshops in their communities. Want a chance for your organization to work with our Manifesto principles? The second round of applications are now open for cultural, arts, and heritage nonprofits from across NY to receive FREE virtual or in-person design workshops through the summer — rooted in our Black liberatory principles. Read more about the partnership, eligibility, and the workshops. Then, APPLY with the link below bio by April 21. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]. Workshops are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Application: https://lnkd.in/ew48pvqe  

🌱 NEW ROLES! 🌱 Development Director and Brownsville Heritage House Project Manager. Check out the job details and benefits at the link and apply or share with good peoples. Open until filled. buff.ly/3S3YFIp ---- Development Director (Full-Time) is responsible for building BlackSpace's giving programs to meets the needs of our growing national community. ✊🏾 Remote from Chicago or In-Person in NYC. Includes benefits. $94-99k. Project Manager (Part-Time Contract) in this NYC-based role will launch a volunteer program for artifact management and manage milestones in the renovation of Brownsville Heritage House’s reading room. 🛠 Deliverable driven. 1099 contract. January - June 2024. Budget max $9,500. ---- Our community is rooted in liberation, deeply loving and relational, and labor is poured right back into the cups of Black people, spaces, and cultures. ✨☁️✨ Join us!

BlackSpace provides the design tools to bring community visions to life. We lead initiatives that support community agency and self-determination, that create space for liberation, spaces that foster the imagination to build. It’s the time of year when we celebrate the year we’ve had together with our friends and family and look towards the future. At BlackSpace, we are entering a time of reflection and wanted to share with you the wonderful projects we have helped shape from Imagination to Build - and ask for your support to continue our work. You can learn more about these projects in the coming weeks or check out more on our new website! Will you join us by setting up a recurring donation of $15 or giving a one-time gift of $50 or $250? We are excited to receive coins of any amount that helps us build our organization to be collective, inclusive, and imaginative! As always, your support goes towards our projects with Black-led organizations that have had a meaningful impact on Black lives and neighborhoods, hiring emergent Black-led studios to support the work. Because you know the immense contributions Black people have made to placemaking history - your support helps us continue to source Black placemaking references and use our Collective 14 - Black design liberatory principles to inspire current and future projects. Whether you have engaged with us on socials, in real life, or been a part of our donor community - we could not offer this level of deep care to our communities without you - so we are looking to gather our wider community again this year to help BlackSpace continue putting its values into action!

Dominique Williams (she/her) is our new Customized Learning Program Manager! 🎉 She is a storyteller, event host, and military kid from Anchorage, Alaska, living in Brooklyn, New York. Traveling and working as a creative strategist helped her find her voice through meeting diverse people and cultures. Her fave Black space is the exact spiritual and community moment at 2:45am at a party when the music switches from hip-hop to gospel. In this new role for BlackSpace, she'll support our national community of Black urbanist Project Partners, and care for clients and operations in our Customized Learning program. Welcome, Dominique! 🧑🏽🏫👩🏽💻🧑🏿🎨

Sarah Rege (she/her) is our new Neighborhood Strategy Project Manager! 🎊 She's multidisciplinary designer and storyteller interested in engaging social equity through design. She’s passionate about community-centered design and strives to promote agency and collaboration throughout the design process. Her fave Black space is Kenya - her birthplace and ancestral home. In this new role for BlackSpace, she'll implement Manifesto-aligned project management of our Neighborhood Strategy portfolio and share our co-design process. Welcome, Sarah! 🌳🏘️📐

We are excited to announce our new collab with NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts)! Applications are now open for cultural, arts, and heritage nonprofits from across NY to receive FREE virtual or in-person design workshops — rooted in our Black liberatory principles. Read more about the partnership, eligibility, and the workshops. Then, APPLY at this link:https://buff.ly/3FNyXCd by Nov 22. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]. Workshops are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Love facilitating and have an interest in Black design, culture, and justice? We're excited to share that we're opening applications to become a PAID Project Partner to help lead groups through signature BlackSpace workshops and projects. There will be an info session next week October 25, 2023 at 5pm EST. Click this link to register: https://buff.ly/3tCdCsS