This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is its own metro area.

Like you, I’ve been crunching over the new Census numbers and what that means for me.

With The Villages, Florida being the largest growing metro area in the United States, it seems like conservative, small-village, but just disconnected and big boxy enough, mostly White urbanism is what people want.

Or, with more people than ever identifying as multiracial, inclusive of both Black Americans and Hispanic/Latino folks(many who are also of Black/African descent), the country as a whole is getting more diverse. Both my home state of North Carolina and my current state of Maryland (along with the adjacent District of Columbia and portions of Virginia) have never been more populous and diverse, with North Carolina growing even more and the “DMV” area leveling out a bit population-wise.

I have to stop my crunching for a moment not because we don’t need this information.

Jurisdictions redistricting their political precincts and districts for better representation; bridging the gap between the 104 million homes, 13 million vacant, for 331,449,281 million people; local governments providing social service aid for “poorer” Census tracts depend on this information and all of its fallacies and quirks.

But I have days of headaches and I lose sleep at night thinking about how I’m one tiny dot of that 331,449,281 million.

A tiny dot in Census parlance, as of April 1, 2020, lived at my current multi-family residence in one of 9 units in our building, with my same-gender partner in a domestic partnership. I am Black, from North Carolina with clear African roots and the possibility of others.

For this same reason of thinking so hard about being that dot, I have to take breaks from my Ancestry account and I still need to submit the DNA test.

But, around the beginning of 2020, I begat my own census. This census was built on this research coordinated by Junia Howell and Bloomberg CityLab on which cities in the United States are most successful for Black women, itself based on evaluating whether or not Black women can succeed in the Pittsburgh metro region.

In that study, I found surprises, like how my home metro of Greensboro is #1 for women’s health.

But I also needed more. So, I launched two separate surveys over the course of our very wacky time of pandemic + heightened interest in Black Lives Matter.

October 1st is also the launch of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Festival/Summit, which will include more virtual and in-person, activities throughout the month of October, namely:

• A Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Demonstration Tour in the DC area on October 16th
• The endoQueer Public Health Week October 11th-15th
• The relaunch of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School on Halloween night
• and I’m putting the finishing details on some other events, including a hybrid Fiber Party for my crafty people.

If you’re a Patreon supporter at the Study Hall level, all of the above is included, with only an additional cost if you want to come on the demonstration tour and/or receive swag bag I’m crafting for the demonstration tour and the fiber party.

If you are a supporter at the Public Lecture level, there’s only an additional fee to access the demonstration tour and the school.

You can also upgrade to annual rates in Patreon or if you do so on Eventbrite, you’ll get the same content delivered in a Teachable school.

Either way, you’ll be hearing a lot from me on email, on socials, and in other media as I prepare to launch out this new offering in the world over the next few weeks.

Once again, you can register here for the whole or part of the paid summit, add the launch webinar to your calendar, or pledge on Patreon to access the full summit or school.

See you soon,

Kristen

P.S. Learn more about my adventures in sustainable fashion and fiber.