SPRING 2023
The anti-displacement studio again partnered with the Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson and the District 7 Office, along with community and civic leaders, neighborhood groups, non-profit organizations, local business owners, and other local stakeholders and decision makers from Roxbury and the South End. Participants focused on community-based activation and redevelopment strategies for publicly-owned parcels in D7.
ANTI-DISPLACEMENT COMICS
For this first studio exercise, students created visual narratives (comic-based stories) about urban displacement and anti-displacement focused on publicly-owned parcels in Roxbury that could be used by D7 partners for community organizing and coalition building purposes.
ROXBURY PLACEMAKING HISTORIES
For this second studio exercise, students conducted archival research on Roxbury placemaking histories to inform vacant-parcel strategies that take control of planning and development at the neighborhood/local scale. They then created summary posters of their findings, focused on topics of food gatherings, health clinics, urban gardens, small businesses, game and recreational spaces, senior spaces, and theaters.
CREATIVE PLACEMAKING IDEAS
For this third and final studio exercise, students and studio partners co-created planning and design ideas for vacant parcels in D7, namely community theaters, bbq/food gathering spaces, multisensory healing spaces, senior spaces, game spaces, and business incubators. Each of the ideas integrates arts and culture to create public and common spaces for joy, rest, creativity, and connection for Roxbury communities.
