(Watch me share a version of these words above or you can skim and read the script I started with below, which has links to several of the things I talked about in the video).

Hey folks. Kristen here and as I come to the end of another month and  the end of another calendar season, I wanted to check in and reflect a bit over the last month.

First of all, I think I do best with doing these newsletters monthly and then giving more time and energy to my virtual classrooms and offline design and art projects. So, if you want to hear more from me, you’ll want to join me in one of my online circles/schools. I’ll talk more about updates to those in a moment. 

If you’re reading (or watching) this and you’re already in a circle, I’ll be sending special versions of this message for you on September 1. If you’re reading or watching this on September 1, then go there first! It’s in your email! Share this one with folks who need and want to join a circle!

—

The actions taken this summer in regards to the racism and other marginalization in the design world were long overdue. 

I have to admit that I didn’t realize that despite all the work I’ve had online for over a decade, along with the speeches and some of the online activism, there were still a lot of places that weren’t listening, weren’t changing and were sadly oblivious to all that’s been going on.

But then again, I didn’t realize, because I’ve known. I’ve known for a long time and I thought more people knew too.

I realized in the Spring of 2010, when I saw how one bad manic mental health episode of my Dad’s could shatter his mobility and that of so many other people thanks to one run red light. Even though he shouldn’t have crashed his car, he shouldn’t have had to be punished by one-hour bus headways, lack of public bathrooms to help him as he walked around town and so few sidewalks and so many six lane thoroughfares in our hometown of Greensboro, NC.

And as I mentioned earlier this summer, upon hearing the news of George Floyd’s death, my dad’s death wasn’t from police violence, but it was violent and without knowing exactly who did it, I didn’t want to speculate and nail a suspect on a rumor.  I’d learned that lesson back in August of 2008 when I was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a “luxury” apartment complex in South Durham and I could only see his masked face after he turned and tapped me on the head with the barrel of his gun. The person was prosecuted two years later, but not from me naming him in the line up they wanted me to do that night.

So in October of 2010, when I saw a lack of care and diversity and inclusion in how Black people were portrayed in academic materials in my public administration and policy graduate program in a public university, I went back to those moments and decided that it wasn’t enough to write a blog about urban planning, education, media and other miscellaneous topics under a name that could have been anyone.

Hence, the name The Black Urbanist.

I saw a stat earlier today that said that less than 5% of all owned  media outlets are Black-owned. It was on an Instagram post about one of the handful of design-focused Black-owned media outlets, AprhoChic, which I hadn’t even realized was still publishing, but I’m glad they are. One of the founders shared in another Instagram post that before they were able to focus on design and media full-time, they were a policy attorney. 

That’s the story of a lot of us, working one job during the day and doing design and art at night, suffering through working in offices or on committees or somewhere else without adequate pay or support. as the funding and support for Black media, Black art and design and building and sustaining Black neighborhoods and resources for Black folks is miniscule.

It’s why I’m proud to have had the mentorship of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in their inaugural Maynard 200 program.

It’s why the recent statement of Black planners I signed was powerful, not just as a show of planners, but as a show of Black-owned design media outlets.

The Black-owned, operated and underfunded equivalents of Planetizen, Next City, Streetsblog and others that may have Black board members, donors,  and columnists but not ownership, creative and editorial control,— which is key in this moment of asserting Black power and liberation.

If you’ve seen my byline in a publication or if you’ve read my expert commentary, I can tell you right now only a quarter, if not half of those opportunities have been paid. 

I’ve been getting honoraria for most of my speeches and appearances over the past two years, but that wasn’t always the case and I didn’t always have a guarantee.

Yet, I’ve watched many urbanist and non-urbanist media outlets, sprout up, expand and grow. I’ve been part of some media projects that I have absolutely no creative control over and have not seen a penny for my labors and my words.

And with a similar dearth of Queer-led media outlets, being able to uplift my partner Les’s vision on her recent podcast to bring the design world and everyone else in the LGBTQIA+ world together, specifically other Black masculine of center lesbian and queer women was vital.

Like I said last month, the recent spate of media attention on Black designers and planners and urbanists and community activists has been great, but what happens when the cameras and the pens and clicks go away from these White-led and profit and image driven publications, that think that doing the one story or takeover or painting is enough? What happens when you can’t be on social media 24/7 pumping up your community, your cause and your work?

I know many of us have been wrestling with the word urbanist this summer. However I’ve been worried for years that in a world that thinks it’s ok to call Black music and black culture and even Black neighborhoods no matter their typology urban, would take the the words Black urbanist together and run roughshod, shutting out Black voices and creating further misinformation.

I had that fear again when googling the word urbanist recently yielded one of my posts on page four, after sifting through lots of white cis male urbanist blogs, articles and academic papers. Only one focused on queer issues and only one other focused on feminism of any kind.

All of this is why, once again, I am in full solidarity with the Design as Protest, BlackSpace and the full Movement for Black Lives platform along with all grassroots and mutual aid efforts.

I’ve also been complicit and I’ve held isms, attitudes and performed actions that I’m not proud of and that didn’t help the cause of Black liberation, Queer and Trans liberation and ensuring access across all economic classes. This note only exists in writing and audio, but without American Sign Language, which is ableist by default.

That has to change.

That’s why I’m creating and teaching a curriculum that centers the stories and scholarship of Black Queer Feminist Urbanist womxn and non-binary people, with the kinds of affinity group and identity caucuses that allow people to learn, process, transform and come together in a way that’s aligned with justice. 

And why I don’t believe in making Black, Indigenous and other marginalized/colonized people pay for opportunity and their healing spaces if they can’t do so reasonably. But I also believe in brave spaces. Hence why the Mighty Networks space is invitation only, because at the moment, that’s the only way I can ensure that. And if you as a fellow BIPOC design or media (or both) world individual are able to pitch in financially to help me hold this space, you can absolutely do so via Patreon or my Cash App or my Venmo.

And I believe our White colleagues can step up and pay the price for this work, both individually and  at the corporate and institutional level, to practice direct reparations for this work. Hence the Patreon campaign and my new Teachable school, which will launch next month. 

Existing Patreons at the $40 level will get first access to this school, along with everyone in the BIPOC space.

I want to give a special shout-out to everyone whose been stepping up in your workplaces, professional organizations, schools, families and out in the streets to make it known that Black Lives Matter all across the board.

Not Black Lives Matter, as long as you don’t ask for equal power and pay. Black Lives Matter, as long as buildings aren’t destroyed even though they represent slavery, segregation and classism. Black Lives Matter, until it’s time to abolish the police, reorganize both secular and faith-based charity and governmental systems in favor of grassroots action and mutual aid and include all genders, sexualities, economic classes and abilities.

I am making The Black Urbanist to be synonymous with Black Queer Feminist liberation that’s not intentionally ableist, classist, fatphobic and every other marginalization that is against all people being their full and healthy selves.

And while I can’t guarantee that 100% of the time because I’m an imperfect human, I can at least hold the trademarks and the online handles and the website addresses and keep Heteropatriarical, capitalistic, imperialistic thought away from family, village, community and pod creation.

Those villages, communities, pods and families that form the foundation of human urbanization. That anyone can create. And has created.

Finally, You can comment below, reply back to this email, @blackurbanist and if you have the phone number, text or call me. 

Also, I am in the hunt for volunteer advisory board members, social media ambassadors and research assistants. I want to pay every last one of these people, especially if they are Black.

I am on the shoulders of my elders and ancestors and indwelled by Spirit and I hold all of them in great reverence and gratitude.