New Village Press Book Circus!

Join New Village Press on Saturday, February 23 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), for a one-of-a-kind Book Circus at the Temescal Branch of the Oakland Public Library! The event will feature a free morning writing workshop by Louise Dunlap and a lively afternoon of film screenings and author presentations. Join special guests Carl Anthony, Roberto Gutiérrez Varea, Judith Tannenbaum, and Arlene Goldbard for a fun and informative day. Free and discounted books, refreshments, and surprises!

Other Events around the Country

The Pratt Institute in New York is hosting a public forum series at its Manhattan campus entitled Democracy, Equity, and the Public Realm. Divided into two categories–public space and transportation–each forum event is host to a guest speaker and a discussion moderator. New Village author and Beyond Zuccotti Park editor Ron Shiffman is organizer of the series, and among the presenters are New Village Press authors Michael Kimmelman, Jeffrey Hou, and Mindy Thompson Fullilove.

 

ADPSR (Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility) will join Planners Network in cohosting the national conference Beyond Resilience: Actions for a Just Metropolis this June 6–8 in New York City. Topics will include community preparedness and response to disaster; environmental justice; cross-sector organizing; meaningful and equitable employment; climate change; racial, class, and gender justice in planning and zoning policies; housing justice including affordable housing and quality public housing; gentrification and displacement; reexamining urban security; transportation justice; and more. The conference is currently calling for submissions.

 

Hearty Congratulations to Our Award-Winning Authors!

 

Ronald Shiffman, Beyond Zuccotti Park editor and What We See contributing author, has been awarded the Planning Pioneers Honor from the American Planning Association for his leadership in participatory urban planning, equitable community building, and bringing the public and private spheres together in creative, democratic ways. Ron is the cofounder and director of the Pratt Graduate Center for Community Development in Brooklyn.

 

Michael Pyatok, contributor to Beyond Zuccotti Park, has been honored with the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the American Institute of Architects for his commitment to creating high quality affordable and low-income housing. Mike is the principal of Pyatok and Associates Architects in Oakland, California.

 

Saskia Sassen, another contributor to Beyond Zuccotti Park and What We See, was named one of the Top Ten Theoriticians of Spatial Theory by Die Architecktin. Her work as a sociologist and an economist has been far-reaching, and she is noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. Saskia is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and cochairs the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University.

New Village Press Wishes Everyone a Love-Filled and Informed Black History Month!

Planners Network, Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, and New Village Press will be cohosting a 2013 conference—Beyond Resilience: Actions for a Just Metropolis. The conference will be held June 6-8, in New York City. We welcome presentation proposals!

Questions arise: how can activists, academics, and professionals promote alternative, more sustainable, and just ways of preserving and developing the metropolis? What lessons have been learned? What role can progressive planners play?

We invite proposals for community-based workshops, discussions, speakers, and plenaries. Preferred topics include: socially just disaster preparedness and response; environmental justice; cross-sector alliances and organizing; meaningful and equitable employment; climate change; racial, class, and gender justice in planning and zoning policies; waterfront planning; housing justice including affordable housing and quality public housing; gentrification and displacement; redefining/reexamining urban security; transportation justice; water security; and food security.

Please be as specific as possible about who will participate in your proposed session, panel, or workshop and what you expect to accomplish. Limit your submission to 250 words and attach as a separate word document. Include “2013 Conference” in the subject line of the e-mail and send to:

To learn more about this year’s conference and past conferences, visit A Just Metropolis.

Our author Lily Yeh will be attending and conducting workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts’ Summer 2013 Conference: Crossover-Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Work. The conference will be held July 7-11 of this year.

Haystack is an international craft school located in Deer Isle, Maine. The school offers intensive studio-based workshops in a variety of craft media including clay, glass, metals, paper, blacksmithing, weaving, woodworking and more. Programs range from short workshops to two-week sessions and anyone may participate, from beginners to advanced professionals.

Lily Yeh’s discussion session, Community Building through Creative Envisioning and Action, will give participants an opportunity to experience her methodology—getting to know one another through a unique series of experiences that build connectedness using individual and collective voices, and multiple modes of expression. These sessions will be hands-on, experimental, and participatory, helping participants to create a new, open space into which they can enter on equal footing, find their own expressions, and figure out innovative ways to work together.

Please visit Haystack’s website for more information on the other attendees and to register for the conference.

Beyond Zuccotti Park has been included on Planetizen’s Top Ten Books of 2012. The list has been chosen by editors based on a number of criteria, including the potential impact of the book on urban planning, design and development, as well as sales, popularity and expert recommendations. The editors wrote,

If a book could resemble a social movement, Beyond Zucotti Park comes real close… Much like the diverse concerns that found a place in the Occupy movement, this book traverses a broad range of questions about the role of public spaces in society

We are very excited for the book to have been included in the list and would like to thank the staff of editors at Planetizen.

For the full list and the full review of BZP please visit their website.

New Village wishes everyone an abundant fall season and celebrates the good tidings of our authors, books, and community!

Ron Shiffman To Be Awarded 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership

New Village author, editor, and program collaborator Ronald Shiffman will receive the prestigious 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership for his tireless commitment to community development this November 14th in New York City.

For more than fifty years, Shiffman has been working to promote community-based activism. His efforts to rebuild Bedford-Stuyvesant through economic development programs inspired the creation of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, which he co-founded in 1964. The Center continues to empower low- and moderate-income communities. Shiffman was previously a recipient of ADPSR’s Lewis Mumford Award.

As lead editor of New Village’s Fall 2012 title Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space, Shiffman will speak about the book on October 19th at the 2012 MAS (Municipal Art Society) Summit for New York City.

Our heartfelt congratulations to Ron!

Mindy Thompson Fullilove Elected Public Director of the American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced that Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, will serve as Public Director from December 2012 through December 2015. We are delighted Dr. Fullilove has been given this important AIA advisory role—she has unique and profound wisdom to offer architects and planners.

Dr. Fullilove is a leading social psychiatrist, who identifies the social, economic, and physical segregation of US cities as the most pressing public health problem of our time. She is a contributing author to New Village titles What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs and Beyond Zuccotti Park. New Village is especially honored to publish her forthcoming book— Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted-Out Cities—in March 2013.

Hooray, Mindy!

Sharon Danks Accepts 2012 ASLA Professional Award in Communications

Our author Sharon Danks mounted the stage during the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO presentation of the ASLA Professional Awards in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 1st to receive a much deserved ASLA Professional Award in Communications for her book Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation. Sharon also continues to diligently further the work of the International School Grounds Alliance, which she founded.

Kudos to Sharon!

Beyond Zuccotti Park Book Launch and Exhibition a Hit in New York

The Oculus Book launch for Beyond Zuccotti Parkat AIA’s Center for Architecture in New York was the best-attended book event they’ve ever held, and the Center’s “Public Space Today” symposium the following Sunday also boasted a full crowd and provocative discussion. The Center also produced an exhibition calledBeyond Zuccotti Park (see visitors above) about the book. This successful September ended with Beyond Zuccotti Park cohosting lighthearted fun at Van Alen Books with Occupy Town Square for a Pop-Up Salon celebrating International Park[ing] Day!

Beyond Zuccotti Park is also attracting great press. Note these selected review excerpts:

• New York Times’s Urban Affairs Correspondant Sam Roberts released a  mini-review in his Friday BookShelf column, calling Beyond Zuccotti Park a “timely perspective on public protest.”
• “The essays are as eclectic as the writers’ viewpoints, making them rich and provocative. . . . The concepts of public commons and the agora became part of the conversation not only within the context of cultural citizenship, but also in the vital role design plays in forming the public sector.” AIANY Oculus Book Review
• “Dedicated to ‘our grandkids, their friends, and their generation’, the collection of works truly takes a visionary approach by offering solutions and recommendations to the problem of decreasing public engagement for current and future generations. Anyone who wishes to spark change and engage ordinary citizens in a discourse that is rightfully theirs will be inspired by this book.” This Big City

We are grateful for the fruits of our community.

In peace and appreciation,
Lynne, Laura, and Megan

Lynne Elizabeth’s trip to New York City for Beyond Zuccotti Park‘s pre-release events was a great success! The Oculus Book talk at the Center for Architecture was the best attended book event they’ve ever had, and the Symposium also had a full crowd and a great discussion. There was even some light-hearted fun with Van Alen Bookstore and Occupy Town Square with a Pop Up Salon for International Park[ing] Day!

New York Times’s Urban Affairs Correspondant Sam Roberts released a mini-review in his Friday BookShelf column, calling Beyond Zuccotti Park a “timely perspective on public protest.”

An excerpt of Jeff Hou’s chapter from Beyond Zuccotti Park was just published in Design Observer/Places, complete with beautiful color pictures. “Jeffrey Hou shifts the emphasis from physical space to citizen action. We need to focus not just on ensuring the right to public assembly, he writes, but also on ‘the making and mobilization of the public as an actively engaged citizenry.’”

Lead editor Ron Shiffman will present Beyond Zuccotti Park on Saturday, September 29, in a keynote address at Pratt Institute Alumni Day and on Friday, October 19, at the 2012 MAS (Municipal Art Society) Summit for New York City.

We’ll keep everyone updated as new things continue to happen and as the momentum keeps gathering!

Editors left to right: Anusha Venkataraman, Anastassia Fisyak, Lynne Elizabeth, Lance Jay Brown, Ron Shiffman, and Rick Bell

Dear Friends of New Village Press,

We’ve been really busy here and have lots of exciting news to share with you!

Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space is here!

We have stacks of lovely books just waiting to be sent out, and our very own Lynne Elizabeth is on her way to New York City for the official launch next week. For those in New York, you can join her in celebrating the opening of the Beyond Zuccotti Park exhibit with an Oculus book talk on Monday, September 10, at the Center for Architecture.

On September 16, one year following the start of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Center for Architecture is holding its third public space symposium—Freedom of Assembly: Public Space Today, Part 3. Beyond Zuccotti Park editors Ron Shiffman, Rick Bell, and Lynne Elizabeth will be speaking, as well as contributors Roland Anglin, Michael Pyatok, and Signe Nielsen.

The exhibit also marks the beginning of a larger initiative—Democracy, Equity, and Public Space—of which Beyond Zuccotti Park is a key component. The initiative includes a traveling multimedia exhibit, public forums, popular and academic study groups, policy advocacy, and a website. Book tours, forums, and exhibits are also in planning for Newark, Oakland/Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Boston, so please stay tuned!

The Beyond Zuccotti Park exhibit will be on display through September 22, so please stop by if you are in the area! If you are unable to attend, you can stay connected by visiting our Beyond Zuccotti Park website or following us on Twitter (@BeyondZuccotti) or Facebook.

We’d also like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who donated to our Beyond Zuccotti Park Kickstarter campaign. Your continued support is greatly appreciated!

Arlene Goldbard Named One of the 50 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts!

Arlene Goldbard, author of New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development and contributor to What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs, was named one of 2012′s Fifty Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts by Barry’s Blog!

Barry writes:
“The conscience of the blogging field, Arlene wears her heart on her sleeve and that endears her to her legions of fans across the sector. No one is more passionate, more informed and more willing to take on the windmills than she is. A beautiful writer she is in great demand as a speaker and consultant.”

Each year, Barry of the Western States Arts Federation asks leaders from all parts of the country and nonprofit sector to send in their nominations for the most powerful and influential leaders in the art field. The resulting leaders are considered to be the drivers of policy discussion, funds, goals, and objectives.

Imagining America to Host Its Annual National Convention in New York City

Imagining America will be hosting its annual national convention in New York City on October 4 through 7. New Village Press, along with Bluestockings Bookstore, NYC, will be selling books on Saturday, Oct. 6, and Sunday, Oct. 7, at the conference.

Imagining America was established to push the boundaries of civic engagement in higher education. This year’s conference is titled “Linked Fated and Futures: Communities and Campuses as Equitable Partners?” Service-Learning in Design and Planning: Educating at the Boundaries editors Tom Angotti, Cheryl Doble, and Paula Horrigan will hold their own sessions regarding community-engaged learning and teaching. Cynthia Cohen will also be presenting the Acting Together project, which includes the two-volume work Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict and the documentary film.

We’re all excited and can’t wait for what should be a great and educational experience!

In peace, play, and publishing,
Lynne, Lolly, and Megan

Sharon Danks’s groundbreaking book Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation continues to draw praise and acclaim! Asphalt to Ecosystems has recently been honored by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with a Professional Award in the Communications Category. The awards honor the top landscape architecture designs and projects from across the US and around the world. The ASLA Awards especially consider projects on environmental sensitivity and sustainability.

When first published, Asphalt to Ecosystems was hailed as an “extraordinary guide” and a “new benchmark of design for educating a new eco-literate generation.”  This prestigious new award recognizes Asphalt to Ecosystems’s technical achievement as well. The ASLA 2012 Professional Awards Jury pronounced it “the most comprehensive and usable book. It’s got great ideas that people can actually translate into practice.”

The ASLA Awards will be presented at the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 1 and will also be featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine’s September issue and online.

Congratulations, Sharon!

Please take a moment to view the American Society for Landscape Architects’s comprehensive page describing the Asphalt to Ecosystems project.

The wonderful Sharon Danks, author of Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation and cofounder of the International School Grounds Alliance, studies schoolyards that are transforming children’s play through a deepened awareness of local ecosystems. In honor of her inspiring and groundbreaking work, the Edible Schoolyard Project has featured her in a June newsletter Edible Editorial!

Sharon’s Edible Editorial, entitled Re-imagining Schoolyards as Places of Wonder: An Excerpt from Asphalt to Ecosystems, provides readers with an excerpt from the preface to Asphalt to Ecosystems along with an author’s note from Sharon herself.

The author’s note effectively introduces us to Sharon’s important study of how schoolyards can be used to transform the way children connect with their local ecosystems, maintain a curiosity for adventure, and learn to nurture their surroundings first-hand. Here, Sharon touches on why transforming school grounds from cement jungles to places where nature can be explored is so important for our children:

When you think about “schoolyards,” what type of image first comes to mind? For many people, school grounds are places covered by paved surfaces and uniform sports fields, adorned with a few nondescript shrubs and trees, and one or two ordinary climbing structures purchased from a catalog. Most school grounds in a given city or region look like all of the others, with very little variation to reflect unique aspects of each school community, the neighborhood’s environmental context, or the teachers’ preferred curricula and teaching methods.

At the same time, the children’s domain—the areas they can roam on their own outside of school—has been shrinking over the last few generations, leaving many children with only the schoolyard to explore to discover how the world works. If what we are providing them at school is limited and bland, how will they develop their curiosity, their sense of adventure, a healthy lifestyle, and a well-rounded world view?

Asphalt to Ecosystems incorporates Sharon’s many years of field research with a practical framework for parents, teachers, school administrators, environmentalists, and schoolyard designers looking to reinvigorate their school grounds.

Way to go, Sharon!

ILLUSTRATION BY RINI TEMPLETON

Dialog for the Occupy Spring

New Village Press is proud to partner with Arbor Café to present the first in the Insurgent Learning Series: Dialog for Occupy Spring!

Please join us on May 15 at 6:30 pm at the Arbor Café, located at 4210 Telegraph Ave (between 42nd St & 43rd St) in Oakland, where activists Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Stierle, Adelaja Simon, and Reverend Phil Lawson will discuss “The Ahimsa (R)evolution: Ways to Disobey with Great Love.”

Reverend Phil Lawson is a veteran Civil Rights activist who serves on the Organizing Committee for the National Council of Elders. As a community organizer, Phil has been engaged in issues concerning immigrants, human and sexual freedom, a just wage for workers, and economic development. He has been hosting a study group on Nonviolent Social Change with interfaith ministers of Occupy Oakland.

Adelaja Simon stopped cooperating with business school to become a permaculturist. He lives in the Canticle Farm community in East Oakland, where he knows, grows, and loves local food and is an extraordinary singer and vegan cook. Adelaja focuses his activism in human rights, environmental regeneration, restorative justice, peacebuilding, urban agriculture, and a vibrant gift economy.

Pancho Ramos Stierle (and Adelaja, his housemate,) were arrested November 14, 2011, during the police raid on Occupy Oakland, while both were meditating. Raised in Mexico City, Pancho came to UC Berkeley to study astrophysics in the PhD program but stopped cooperating with the university when he realized his research was supporting an institution that actively proliferates nuclear weapons. He faces a deportation hearing this May and brings unique views about his own arrest and the Occupy movement.

— It is time to disobey with Great Love. Do it beautifully and be informed. —