February 2021 News
Awards Program Honors Mindy Fullilove
2021 Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Awards
Thursday, February 11th, 6:00 PM EST

Dr. Fullilove will receive this year's award for her focus on environmental justice and her work calling attention to the impact of industrial development on poor and minority communities. Also see the winning student projects submitted for the Urban Design Awards Student Competition, which reimagine a Philadelphia refinery site in a way that benefits all Philadelphians. This award is presented by AIA Philadelphia.
In the midst of a pandemic, the ability to rely on the power of community is more important than ever. In Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All, Mindy Fullilove describes how a pattern of disinvestment in inner-city neighborhoods has left Main Streets across the U.S. in disrepair, weakening our cities and leaving us vulnerable to catastrophe.

"This is as much a guide for the perplexed (or depressed) as it is an astonishing study of the built environment and its effects on our health, communities, politics—and our future."
— Mara Spiegel
Listen to Mindy Thompson Fullilove discuss Main Street on the America Walks Webinar and Freddie Mac Multifamily Podcast.
My Life in 100 Objects
In My Life in 100 Objects, Margaret Randall reflects on the stories told by the objects and images she's gathered throughout her rich life as a poet, author, artist, and activist. With a masterful, poetic voice, she shares experiences from around the globe, from Cuba to Vietnam.

"Even as they stretch all the way back to her childhood in the ’40s, or her young adulthood in the ’60s, her stories have never been more of the moment: who gets to come to this country, who gets to love whom, and every other hard-won freedom still at stake today."
— Garrett Caples, Editor, City Lights Spotlight

Recently, Margaret Randall joined WAMC's 51% to discuss her life and her work. Listen here.
Ann Snitow Prize Awarded
Dr. Premilla Nadasen is the inaugural recipient of the Ann Snitow Prize. The annual award, established in honor of influential feminist activist and scholar Ann Snitow, recognizes an extraordinary feminist and intellectual working at the intersection of feminism and social justice activism.

Read a recent interview with Dr. Nadasen in Ms. Magazine, where she describes her thoughts on receiving the award and the broader social implications of awards and prizes.
"Richly informed, emotionally centered, beautiful written, Visitors is a book to be read by all who crave a deeper understanding of the times in which we live."
— Vivian Gornick

Ann Snitow's memoir Visitors: An American Feminist in East-Central Europe describes her adventures helping to build a feminist movement in post-Communist Europe. In the face of immense change and confusion, Snitow reflects on unity amid fractiousness and perseverance through uncertainty, two guiding principles that shaped much of her life and work.
A Man of the Theater
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2:00 PM EST

Sponsored by the Institute of Arts and Humanities Global South Studies and co-sponsored by the Program for the Study of Religion, Nasser Rahmaninejad, author of A Man of the Theater: Survival as an Artist in Iran, will discuss his experiences as a theater director in Tehran with Dr. Babak Rahimi. More information will be available soon on their website.
With the immediacy of a play, A Man of the Theater describes a theater artist's fraught creative life during two great upheavals in Iranian history, founding a theater company under the increasing pressure of the censorship authorities and the Shah’s secret police.

“Nasser’s tale of his art and its encounter with power is told with the poignant humour and devastatingly profound honesty that characterizes his life and his work.”
— Syrus Samii
Follow us on Instagram this month to find out how you can win a free copy of A Man of the Theater by Nasser Rahmaninejad.
Events with Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel
Friday, February 5th, 7:00 PM PST

In honor of Black History Month, the Rotary Nature Center Friends will host Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel in a discussion of Carl Anthony's memoir, The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race. Anthony's rich narrative connects the logics behind slavery, community disinvestment, and environmental exploitation to comprehensively address the most pressing issues of our time.
National Random Kindness Day
Webinar & Award
Wednesday, February 17th, 4:30 PM PST

Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony will celebrate Random Kindness Day with a discussion of the phrase "Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty," and the launch of the Random Kindness Leadership Award, given to honor the values and vision embodied by the first award recipient, Desmond Tutu. Watch our social media for a link to tune in!
Paloma Pavel is the coauthor of Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty.
More News from our Authors

Hosted by the New York State Writers Institute, Nadina LaSpina joined Professor James Odato to discuss her experience growing up with a disability and her involvement in the disability rights movement. She is the author of the memoir Such a Pretty Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment, and Disability Pride.

"From the first vivid chapter set in Sicily to her gutsy activism in the U.S., LaSpina's triumphant memoir of a richly lived life held me rapt."
— Alix Kates Shulman

Arlene Goldbard and Francois Matarasso have started a podcast on community arts and cultural policy, broadly defined. "When we interview people, it won't be just to hear their work described, but to explore why they do it, what it means . . . and so on."


The portrait of Jane Jacobs painted by Arlene Goldbard is from her Camp of Angels of Freedom series.

The Atlantic included input from Sharon Gamson Danks, CEO of Green Schoolyards and author of Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, in their recent article on using outdoor learning to address the challenge of reopening school.

For more of Sharon Danks's thoughts on outdoor learning during the pandemic, read the article she recently co-wrote with Karen Cowe here.

Asphalt to Ecosystems is now available on Kindle.
Spoon Jackson Recovering from COVID
New Village Press author and incarcerated poet Spoon Jackson was recently hospitalized for COVID-19 and is now recovering. During this difficult period, Spoon learned that two of his poems were published in the February issue of Poetry Magazine: "At Night I Fly" and "Old School." Read them here.

In his most recent call to Lynne Elizabeth, Spoon described himself as an injured albatross, a bird that can fly for nearly a year without stopping. Reflecting on their conversation, Lynne wrote a brief poem. We leave you with it.
Spoon Jackson calls from the dark side of a prison infirmary. An injured albatross flying, flying, He dips in the water from time to time. Ten thousand miles without stop. Behind bars since age nineteen. Black. Poet. Sixty something years now. Shackled twenty-six days to a hospital bed with covid, but happy to be served meatloaf, chicken soup, and vegetables he had never seen in his life. He returns to prison baloney and the option to phone if he can walk the forty steps. Yesterday he tried, but had to sit down. Too soon. Tomorrow he’ll buy paper and pen.