Design + Culture Lab OPEN CALL
Design+Culture Lab, LLC (D+C Lab) formed by alumni Joy Alise Davis, MA and current Theories of Urban Practice graduate student Renae Reynolds investigates the shared lived experiences of people of color as they navigate and survive in public space. In light of recent racially charged crimes against men of color by members of law enforcement, D+C Lab responds with an open call for interviews for upcoming publication “The POC (People of Color) Survival Guide to Public Space”, scheduled for release in 2015.
The POC Survival Guide to Public Space is a collaborative project sharing stories, experiences, and knowledge about how people of color engage in the public realm. Collecting lived experiences from people of color, this project seeks to build new methodology and a deeper understanding of how race and space inform each other, moving away from the broad strokes of race as a demographic category and toward the intimate and the particular.
“We are interested in race as experience, emboldened by the richness of storytelling and oral histories.” Renae Reynolds | COCEO and Graduate Candidate of Theories of Urban Practice
In building this shared understanding, Design+Culture Lab ask people of color to submit stories, encounters, and reflections as a person of color moving within the city. What happened, how did you feel, what can you recall about the space? With the consent of the author all stories will be collected and shared in a periodical zine. D+C Lab encourages all people of color to participate making this a truly intersectional body of work only as strong and rich as the variance of our identities and experiences.
“This is a call towards a new litany for survival; for all of us, people of color, to revel in the livelihood of sharing meaning, enjoyment, and knowledge with and for, each other. To both create and be critical of the spaces in which we live, work, love, commune, and move through. This is about survival and vision. About the multiplicity of ways that we seek each other out; connect, expand, and grow the possibilities for tenderness and protection between us.” Ron Morrison | Project Lead for POC Survival Guide to Public Space and Graduate Candidate of Design and Urban Ecologies.
Design+Culture Lab, LLC is a researchbased urban social enterprise based in Portland, OR and New York, NY dedicated to the transformation of urban neighborhoods through collaborative design strategies to address the complex spatial issues associated with cultural, racial and ethnic inequality. Design+Culture Lab, LLC is a African American Women Owned Design Firm.
You can find more information from their website at www.designculturelab.com/poc#POCSurvivalGuide
Joy Alise Davis, MA | Founder and Co-CEO
joyalise@designculturelab.com