Without humanity, everything we build is just statues and structures and experiments. Empty, hostile, and haunting. When we think about how people use what we make, and honor their diversity and ensure their inherent humanity, we always win.
This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.
Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally.
So, I’m trying to not open these emails with a sermon, but right now, I have to highlight that we are in a very real crisis of unsafe spaces. Note that I don’t say uncomfortable spaces, because there’s a difference.
Not parsing out that difference is costing us lives.
In my definition, unsafe space is someone threatening verbal or weaponized violence against you for covering your face or not looking, sounding, or even feeling the way you’re “supposed” to feel for them. Unsafe space is also space that is physically inaccessible.
An uncomfortable space is when someone’s behavior or look isn’t pleasurable or appealing to you, but they aren’t endangering your life or well-being for being in the space. Also, their being in the space isn’t keeping you from coming in and thriving, either on your own or with assistance.
These distinctions get muddy when we have faith traditions that teach that being allowed to be in the presence of the Divine means looking or acting or being a certain way. Never mind humans, even if you believe we just evolved without any overarching actor, just are. No qualifications or questions. However, in our souls, we’ve decided that sometimes some people don’t belong or aren’t good enough.
Sometimes the person we decided wasn’t good enough is us.
And in a world where we’ve created tools that can make dirt and powder weapons of mass destruction, where we use our bare hands to snuff out the breath or beat down the brains of those we don’t like, the lines are further blurred between uncomfortable and unsafe spaces.
But we owe it to ourselves, as cliche as all of this sounds, to be in the right relationship with humans.
And if you ever wonder, especially if you’re new around here why I spend so much time talking about who actually uses those 15-minute cities, those shiny new office cubicles with HEPA filters and the outdoor seating cafes, and yes, the bus, it’s because they’re all for naught if they’re empty.
Because you want your building to be more than a tall, expensive statue of windows.
You want your transit system to be more than a life-sized, gas or electric-powered Hot Wheels toy set on a fixed track.
Because we are all worthy and none of our labor is in vain.
(Also, I want to shout out my therapist for nudging me to start thinking about what’s uncomfortable vs. what’s unsafe. I want to put in a note here to encourage you to find a therapist that knows that much of what we consider mental health is just health and who can help you handle systemic oppression while also learning how to break it down).
The Principle Corner
Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. This week, I wanted to pause with the specific principles and talk a little more about this Black Queer Feminist Index I’m shaping.
So last week, we ran into a bit of a technical difficulty with my Personal Space Comfort Index.
However, this week, rather than panicking when my measure didn’t work right and dumping it (see, I’m just as guilty as others of discarding data and measures, not because they don’t work, but because they don’t seem to work), I am sharing as much of the index as I can, because next week, based on what we’ve been talking about in our opening reflections, I want to dig into why these spaces are uncomfortable for me. And, I want to find a survey software to help me make this easy for you to do so that I can collect and compare data.
In the meantime, you can just do your own 1-10 list on a piece of paper or list from the most comfortable, to least comfortable, spaces that you are most comfortable in. Another advantage of doing this is that you can write out the names of the spaces in the way you know them, not just in the way that others code them for analysis. If you’d like me to compare and contrast, feel free to email me at kristen@theblackurbnanist.com if this is not already in your inbox. If it is in your email, reply back or leave it in the comments on my website or Substack.
Now, without further ado, the list. Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable:
Nature Trail/River Kayaking
Bookstores and Libraries
Craft circles, stores, and festivals
Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)
Private residences
Public transportation
Schools and workplaces
Healthcare facilities
Hair Salons
Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces).
By the Way
Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.
So yes, you might have seen that one of Lyft’s pages honored me and 9 of my colleagues as one of their top-ten people to follow in transportation and they drew me and four others on the list. I’ll echo here what I said on my personal Facebook when I posted it there earlier today:
In the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018 I was driving Lyft to help build up my budding transportation, design, and media business, and now I’m one of their top-ten leaders.
While a lot of these rankings can be political and yes, even petty, I do honor that I’m not doing the work in a vacuum or in vain.
Also, we all need to be lifting each other up when we can. It’s why appreciate so much the opportunity earlier this month to be on KBOO Community Radio’s monthly The Bike Show, currently co-hosted by my dear friend in the urbanism space, Nedra Deadwyler. I haven’t shared it before now because I felt super rambly and we had technical difficulties. But again, what I think is rambles, many of you get insight and light, especially those of you with whom we share marginalized intersections. I hope this interview and the Lyft article above empower you. Not just in your work, but you as a human.
And since we are talking data, I absolutely support disaggregation of ethnicities within assumed ethnicities like Asian and African-American. We have a similar thread, but we are not all the same and it matters when people are baselining average salaries and presumed well-being on a number that’s skewed by those doing the best in our community.
Finally, I’m also still thinking of this after watching this documentary by Tracee Wilkins of NBC Washington about how Charles County has become the new destination county for Black folks of means in the DC area. In addition to everything that’s been said by myself and other writers that I highlighted some of last week, I really worry that our classism is going to do us in. It’s also why I’m somewhat hesitant to disaggregate some data points, but I know that we need both measures to ensure the actual liberation of all oppressed people.
On the Shelf, On the Playlist
It’s that time of year that I look to blast soft, airy, spring-like jazz and R&B music. In 2020 and again in 2023 with his new record, Braxton Cook’s jazz has floated to the top of my list. Additionally, Maxwell’s Embrya is back in my rotation, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. But, I finished today’s newsletter with both of Kelela’s full-lengths back-to-back.
And I pulled Moya Bailey’s breakdown of how she crafted the concept of misogynoir off my physical shelf. It’s already in the canon, because, reasons, but as we continue through this month, I want to really soak in and understand this concept as a creator of media.
Before You Go
This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!
Mpact: Transit + Community conference (formerly called Rail~Volution) is inviting you to submit a proposal to speak at the 2023 conference coming to Phoenix, AZ, in November. If you work on transit, connected mobility options, supportive land use & development, share your experience via a proposal. Full information here: https://www.mpactmobility.org/conference/speakers/.
The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023.
The conference is known as a place to learn new tools and forge cross-sector connections. It focuses on the whole community built around transit and multimodal investments, from the modes themselves to housing, business, and economic development, including the implications for health, safety, equity, sustainability, access to opportunity, and overall quality of life.
To submit a proposal, review the Call for Speakers Information packet, download the worksheet to draft your submission, then submit using an online form. (All the links are on this page: mpactmobility.org/speakers.) Your proposal is an indication that you are willing and able to be in Phoenix for the conference. Speakers can attend for free for the day they are speaking (session schedule will be available in July) or will need to pay the full rate to attend the entire conference. Scholarships are available to people affiliated with community organizations and non-profits.
The 2023 conference comes at a time when transit and development models are in flux and (in the US) federal infrastructure funding is rolling out. How are your projects or initiatives changing to respond to challenging times? How are you doing things differently to achieve better outcomes for your community? What are specific approaches to reversing disparities? To innovative financing? To more sustainable energy choices? To engaging community members in decision-making? To success in mitigating heat, fires, and flood or taking a systemic approach to
climate change?
The Call for Speakers for Mpact Transit + Community 2023 is your chance to join the conversation and shape the vision for how our communities move and thrive.
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Free training on data analysis and storytelling for organizations working in urban equitable development
The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) teaches organizations, non-profits, and local governments in the U.S. and Canada how to use their data and resources to document, reflect, evaluate, and communicate the impacts of their work to stakeholders and communities.
Our skilled data analysis and storytelling experts help organizations reach new audiences using data and resources they already own. We work closely with your organization to create 20-30 hours of personalized modules designed to meet your data and narrative needs. Organizations located in small to mid-sized cities (with populations less than 500,000) are eligible for our Initiative.
We are looking for a wide range of equitable development projects, from a local community garden to a city-wide public transportation plan. If you know an organization who could benefit from free training in data analysis and storytelling, we encourage you to share this Initiative. Let’s build equitable cities together. There is no cost to apply.
Find out more on our website.
The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley Centre for Community Innovation and University of Toronto School of Cities, funded by a $2.2 million (USD) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow – Homelessness Hub
Location: University of California, San Diego
Homelessness Hub, a research entity in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow working in the area of homelessness and/or housing precarity.
The official postdoctoral scholar fellowship appointment will be through the UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of the Homelessness Hub leadership team: Dr. Jennifer Nations, Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell and Dr. Leslie Lewis.
Homelessness Hub is focused on research, education, and communications on housing andhomelessness-related topics for San Diego and neighboring regions. Equity and justice areintegral to our work and we center the experiences of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We are actively expanding our research agenda and will do so by leveraging new and existing collaborations.
A highly qualified postdoctoral scholar is sought to contribute to all aspects of Homelessness Hub’s research process. Position duties include but are not limited to: developing research design and methods; data collection and analysis; writing manuscripts and grant proposals; and mentoring and supervising students and research assistants.
Program: https://homelessnesshub.ucsd.edu
Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu
Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $64,522-$72,000.
APPLY LINK: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03524
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If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.
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I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.
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if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack, but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind paywall, this is considered a love offering.
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And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com.
Until next time,
Kristen