As part of the Spring 2021 Public Programs series at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the seven inaugural MICD Just City Mayoral Fellows discussed how to tackle racial injustices in each of their cities through planning and design interventions. The inaugural MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship, a collaboration between the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) and Harvard GSD’s Just City Lab, took place in Fall 2020. During the fellowship, mayors learned best practices from the nation’s leading experts on the intersection of urban design, planning, and racial justice while creating a manifesto of action for each of their cities.
Over two panels, the mayors discussed how their administrations are enacting values of justice in each of their cities. They were joined by distinguished MICD Resource Team alumni to contextualize their efforts within larger conversations taking place in the fields of city design today.
Watch both panels below:
Part 1: Memory, Place Narratives and the Just City
Opening Remarks: Sarah M. Whiting, Dean, Harvard GSD; Ra Joy, Chief of Staff, National Endowment for the Arts; Trinity Simons, Executive Director, MICD
Moderator: Toni L. Griffin, Founder and Director, Just City Lab, Harvard GSD
Columbia, SC Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin
Greenville, MS Mayor Errick D. Simmons
Framingham, MA Mayor Yvonne Spicer
Union City, GA Mayor Vince Williams
Respondent: Brent Leggs, Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Part 2: Restorative Justice through a Dignity Economy
Moderator: Toni L. Griffin, Founder and Director, Just City Lab, Harvard GSD
Jackson, MS Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba
Mount Vernon, NY Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard
Birmingham, AL Mayor Randall Woodfin
Respondent: Michael Murphy, Founding Principal and Executive Director, MASS Design Group
Closing Remarks: Bryan C. Lee, Jr., Founder/Design Director, Colloqate Design
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