Undesign the Redline @ Barnard is an interactive exhibition that combines history, art, and storytelling with community outreach and collaboration. The Symposium is an opportunity to learn and explore more about the history and legacies of redlining in relation to inequity at a campus, local, and national level, as well as people and projects who are working toward making more inclusive, just, and equitable communities. This event will be held virtually, and is open to the public.
Preliminary Program:
DAY ONE - FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19th
9:00-9:15am Opening Remarks
9:15-10:15 AM Undesigning the Red Line in NYC Schools
Moderated by Haley Lucas, CC '22 and Chanel Qin, BC '23, with Chandler Miranda, Faculty in Education and Urban Studies, Barnard
Participants: Students enrolled in URBS-UN 3310 Race, Space and Urban Schools- Talia Albukrek, Paulyn Annor, Fatima Azimova, Bannon Beall, Monique Benjamin, Connie Cai, Lila Chafe, Francesca Demarco, Romeo Ferrer, Sofia Fontaine, Sydney Gerlach, Emily Gethen, Sadia Haque, Mrittika Howlader, Fatumata Hydara, Joanne Lee, Nori Leybengrub, Haley Lucas, Irene Madrigal, Noreen Mayat, Roxanne McAdams, Joo Hee Myung, Oliver Niu, Erinma Onyewuchi, Jailine Pena Lopez, Chanel Qin, Victoria Tse, Avanti Tulpule, Cecilia Vega Orozco, Isabelle Watson, Catherine Zhu
This session will include presentations by 8 groups of students who will have researched and created a podcast telling the story of a school in New York City that has been impacted by the legacy of redlining. In three acts, students will present the history and current story of the school using audio archives and interviews, explore the connections between where we live and where we go to school, and provide suggestions for how to "undesign the redline" in urban school districts across the country.
10:30- 11:30 AM Educational Policy from Redlining to the Climate/COVID Crisis
Moderated by E. Kitzmiller, Faculty in Education, Barnard College
Reviewers: Miriam Neptune, Senior Associate Director, BCRW; Mary Rocco, Faculty, Urban Studies and Christina Collins, Director of Research and Policy at the United Federation of Teachers’ Teacher Center
Participants: Students from EDUC BC 3032 Investigating the Purposes and Aims of Education Policy
The participants will be presenting their final projects-in-progress in our course, Investigating the Purposes and Aims of Education Policy: From Redlining to the Climate/Covid Crisis. The final projects will examine the historical legacy of structural racism and white supremacy in a particular community, an analysis of the myriad factors that contribute to educational inequality, and the solutions and policies that will contribute to a more just and equitable society. The presentations will be digital slide/poster presentations of their works-in-progress to gain feedback on their work before it is completed. Erika Kitzmiller, the course instructor, will provide an overview to the course and the final projects and then students in the course including Caelan Bailey, Lanajames Kalfas, Ashe Lewis, and Jessica Park will provide an overview to their final-projects-in-progress.
11:30 AM - 12:10 PM Guided Meditation session, with Harlem Wellness teacher Vera Ruangtragool (Truly Well)
1:00-2:00 PM First Person: A Show and Tell of Redlining and Gentrification zines from the Barnard Zine Library
Moderated by Jenna Freedman, Zine Librarian, Barnard Library
Panelists: Alekhya Maram, Zine Associate BC '25; Claudia Acosta, Zine Tech; Grace Li, Zine Associate BC '24; Mikako Murphy, Zine Associate BC '22; and Nayla Delgado, Zine Associate BC '24
Zine making is an act of resistance, rejecting the power structures of mainstream publishing, self-creating a home for marginalized and minoritized makers to take up space. Zine makers tell their stories with prose, poetry, collage, illustrations, juxtaposition. Student, part-time, and full-time staff from the Barnard Zine Library will explore zines from our collection that share creators' first hand experiences with redlining, gentrification, and other expressions of geographic racism.
2:00 - 2:20 PM Short Guided Meditation with Vera Ruangtragool
2:30-3:30 PM Digital Redlining
Moderated by Saima Akhtar, Associate Director, Vagelos Computational Science Center
Panelists: Emmanuel Martinez, Investigative Data Journalist at The Markup, Chris Gilliard, Visiting Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center and a Detroit-based writer, professor and speaker on digital privacy, and Greta Byrum, program director for the Social Science Research Council’s Just Tech program. The panel will be moderated by CSC Associate Director Saima Akhtar.
The Undesign the Redline exhibit at Barnard College explores the history of structural racism and inequality and how these designs compounded each other from the 1938 Redlining maps until today. This Digital Redlining panel convenes community organizers and experts on the effect that technology has had on exacerbating these century-old redlining tools via broadband accessibility, biases in mortgage lending, and more.
3:45-4:45 PM Artists in Conversation
Moderated by Jazmin Maço, Barnard Digital Humanities Center and Vanessa Thill, BC’ 13, Milstein Exhibits Designer
Panelists: Christopher López, A History of Arson: Hoboken, NJ.; Ayling Zulema Domínguez, Off-Limits: A Photo Essay; and Ariana Faye Allensworth, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
Three artists will present a visual portfolio of their work inspired by redlining histories that engage photography, storytelling techniques, and social history mapping. Ariana Faye Allensworth explores spatial justice, and the politics of belonging with collaborative research projects made in community. Ayling Zulema Domínguez uses the visual shorthand of redlining to create portraits of elements, places, and people in Harlem and the Bronx that were redlined decades ago. Christopher López explores the notion of truth, and how it is discerned through visual artifacts. All three artists share an interest in political education, care, abundance, and the healing properties of storytelling. The presentations will be followed by a panel conversation on the artists’ works’ connection to redlining, their concepts of reclamation and resistance, and the broader role of artists in justice movements.
5:30pm - 7pm Keynote address by Peggy Shepard, Co-founder and Executive Director of WE-ACT for Environmental Justice
Peggy Shepard ihas a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents in community-based planning and campaigns to address environmental protection and environmental health policy locally and nationally. She has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy, and environmental health community-based participatory research to become a national leader in advancing environmental policy and the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities — to ensure that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment extends to all. She has been named co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her work has received broad recognition: the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, the 10th Annual Heinz Award For the Environment, the William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership, the Knight of the National Order of Merit from the French Republic, the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Honorary Doctorates from Smith College and Lawrence University.
DAY TWO - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20th
11:00 -12:30 AM Reparations: Remedy the Redline
Moderated by Linda Mann, Director of the African American Redress Network, Columbia University
Panelists: Irene Jang, Research Assistant, Barnard College; Corey Shaw, Student Researcher, University of District of Columbia; James Lennox, Student Researcher, University of District of Columbia; Claire Choi, Program Assistant, Columbia University
The African American Redress Network (AARN) engages in local-level reparation efforts. AARN uses a human rights framework when analyzing the gross wrongs of enslavement, dispossession, and institutionalized anti-Black violence. Our model draws inspiration from United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/147 and guidance by the International Commission of Jurists. AARN provides research, education, and technical assistance to grassroots organizations to advance local reparations. A majority of our efforts focus on Black land loss. This presentation will highlight two of our efforts: Evanston, Illinois, and Brown Grove, Virginia. This workshop will examine how these communities were purposefully, racially segregated including, zoning ordinances and red-lining, the immediate and contemporary effects of these policies on housing, schools, services, and more, and current-day efforts to alter the legacies via reparations. Additionally, participants will explore how these communities are seeking repair within the framework of International Human Rights.
1:00-2:00 pm Under One Roof: Conversations with Community
Moderated by Brianna Sturkey, BC ’20, New York Civil Liberties Union
Panelists: Michael Palma Mir, Executive Director of Teatro Círculo; Monica Dula, Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society; Victor Edwards, Manhattan Community Board 9 Member; and Karen Taylor, Founder, While We Are Still Here: Preserving Harlem’s History
“Under One Roof: Communities in Conversation” will highlight the art of storytelling and cement the lived experiences of those who have been directly affected by the legacies detailed in the Undesign the Redline exhibit. This panel will include long-term residents and concerned community members who wish to preserve the rich history of Harlem, while also addressing the neighborhood’s complicated relationship with Columbia University and Barnard College. This forum will seek to 1.) explore the economic, visual, and cultural changes that have shaped Harlem over the panelists’ lifetimes 2.) dissect how the pandemic has affected rent stability, and 3.) delve into the ways that attendees can help empower local communities to resist gentrification measures. COVID-19 has exposed how deeply flawed New York City’s housing market is towards low-income and minority renters, often leaving them vulnerable to displacement due to decades of housing discrimination, practices of redlining, and long-term government disinvestment. The purpose of this panel is to deconstruct the notion of “experts” and focus on community-based solutions.