Storytelling in Architecture: Stories & Places

This event, hosted by the AIANY Civic Leadership Program, offers a platform for everyday New Yorkers to share untold stories about how their lives are impacted by the built environment.

The majority of the event will be structured like The Moth: a prompt (such as “People and Places”) will be announced two weeks in advance and participants who volunteer on the day of the event will be given five minutes to stand in front of a microphone and share their story. Afterward, the Civic Leaders will convene a panel representing different storytelling media (such as journalism, engagement, or fine art) to speak about incorporating underrepresented voices into their practice, how to be a better listener, and to discuss the power and peril of assigning value to one voice over another. Architects should come away from the event with a deeper understanding of the ways in which small decisions in their practice impact people’s lives, and concrete resources for learning how to tell better stories.

This event, also provides an opportunity and platform for everyday New Yorkers to share untold stories about how their lives are impacted by the built environment. Complete the form linked here to submit your stories for the event and express interest to perform during the open mic portion.

Leading the event from this year’s CLP cohort are Alexis Clarke, Ivan Himanen, AIA, Ami Mehta, Assoc. AIA, David Polk, AIA, and kennedy Whiters, AIA.

Speakers:
Immanuel Oni, Artist, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Liminal 
Sabina Sethi Unni, Fellow, Urban Design Forum's New City Critics 
Cassim Shepard, Distinguished Lecturer, The Anne & Bernard Spitzer School of Architecture at City College, CUNY

About the Speakers:
Immanuel Oni is a first-generation Nigerian-American artist and spatial designer living in New York City originally from Houston, TX. He has been a Fellow for the Design Trust for Public Space, Culture Push, New York for Culture and Arts, More Art Engaging Artist Commission NY, and received awards from Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY, Youth Design Center, Architectural League of New York, and the New York State Council of the Arts. He is a former Director of Community Design at the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and Adjunct Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Liminal, a non-profit that works at the intersection of art, unity, and space.

Sabina Sethi Unni is an aspiring artist-scholar, researcher, and organizer passionate about cultivating participatory open spaces through public programming and planning. She is the co-founder of Fresh Lime Soda Productions, a South Asian theater ensemble. She is a recent graduate in urban planning at Columbia GSAPP.

Cassim Shepard is distinguished lecturer in architecture and urban studies at City College, City University of New York. Trained as an urban planner, geographer, and documentary filmmaker, Cassim produces nonfiction media about cities and places, with a particular emphasis on housing and civic life. His film and video work about cities around the world has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the United Nations, Pavillon de l’Arsenale in Paris, and the African Centre for Cities in Cape Town. Shepard’s writing has appeared in Places Journal, Next City, Strangers’ Guide, Domus, and Public Culture, among other publications. He was founding editor-in-chief of Urban Omnibus, an online publication of the Architectural League of New York, which inspired his first book, Citymakers: The Culture and Craft of Practical Urbanism (Monacelli Press, 2017). 

About the AIANY Civic Leadership Program
The AIANY Civic Leadership Program (CLP) is designed to cultivate architectural professionals into civic leaders. Through a six-month mentorship and training program, ten designers develop skills to engage in the civic process. The CLP provides opportunities to interface with government officials, community development organizations, and local stakeholders through development sessions and public events. The program also provides opportunities to improve communication and public speaking skills and engage in community outreach and consensus building.