Redlining, Section 9, and the Future of Public Housing

April De Simone, Samelys Lopez '01, and Ramona Ferreyra, moderated by Vanessa Thill '13
Jun 10, 2022 | 6:30pm
Panel Discussion
Online

Join us for a panel discussion and closing event for Undesign the Redline @ Barnard, a year-long exhibition and event series exploring the continued impact of redlining and predatory real estate practices on communities in Northern Manhattan and beyond. Our panelists will discuss issues facing New York’s public housing – which provides affordable homes for more than half a million New Yorkers – including our neighbors in Barnard and Columbia’s immediate vicinity. This conversation comes at a moment when the future of Section 9 is seriously threatened by privatization programs such as RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) and the Preservation Trust. The audience will learn how residents are fighting for de-commodified housing that allows people to thrive, and how to support these important efforts.

The panelists include: April De Simone, creator of the Undesign the Redline exhibit, transdisciplinary designer and architect; Samelys Lopez (BC ‘01) Bronx community organizer and former congressional candidate; and Ramona Ferreyra, social entrepreneur and tenant leader; moderated by Vanessa Thill (BC ‘13), organizer and exhibits designer at Barnard College. Each panelist brings unique perspectives from their experiences growing up and living in the Bronx and Northern Manhattan, doing on the ground research, problem-solving, and building community knowledge. 

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About the Speakers

As a transdisciplinary designer, April De Simone (Principal, Trahan Architects) brings 20 years of experience navigating the intersectionality of architecture, planning, and systems thinking. Her work, inspired by her experiences growing up in the Bronx, New York, cultivates reframed opportunities within pedagogy and processes, advancing opportunities within the practice of architecture to spatialize healing, equity, and restitution. In 2015, April co-founded Designing the WE where she launched the co-curated exhibition and platform, Undesign the Redline, which explores the historical and contemporary spatial reverberations of unjust policies and practices like residential racial ordinances, Redlining, and Urban Renewal. Her interdisciplinary work investigates the implicit and invisible relationship between architecture and human condition, connecting a deeper understanding of how inequity, supremacy (in its various forms), and dehumanization become spatialized and proliferated. This body of work has been infused in numerous projects demonstrating the equitable, humane, and just capacities of architecture and design mediums, including a supervised visitation site at the Bronx Borough Family Courthouse and the social enterprise venture Urban Starzz. April continues to be an invited lecturer, speaker, and facilitator at numerous institutions. She sits on progressive boards, including the American Sustainable Business Council, and works closely on a local and national level with diverse stakeholders within the design sector, like the Urban Design Forum, on issues of race, equity, and democratic architecture.

Ramona Ferreyra, Tekina Guatu Ke Ini Inaru, is a social entrepreneur and Founder of Ojala Threads. She is a doodler, historian, poet, advocate and defender. Ramona identifies as Hispanic, indigenous, and disabled. She sees Ojala Threads as a love letter to her ancestors, and her descendants. She impacts policymaking in the areas of criminal justice reform, public housing and public transportation. Ramona tweaked her leadership style at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Center for Creative Leadership. She previously led outreach efforts for the FBI and Department of Defense focused on community engagement and environmental resilience.

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the South Bronx by a first generation mother from the Dominican Republic, Samelys Lopez earned a Bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She worked as a project manager in the affordable housing after graduating. Having grown up in the NYC family shelter system, Samelys has overcome many of the challenges her neighbors in the Bronx have experienced such as housing scarcity, food insecurity, underfunded public schools, the indignities of the welfare system, economic anxiety and loved ones overcoming mental health stigma. Samelys is the product of the immigrant experience and it is the lens through which she sees the world. Samelys’ personal story informs her advocacy, commitment to the grassroots and fighting for the underdog. She leads with compassion, believes in the power of collective organizing so that people who have felt left out of the decision making process that impacts their daily lives can be heard and seen. Samelys has helped build affordable housing in some of New York City’s most underserved communities, including her home borough of the Bronx for a decade. Samelys was one of The Hispanic Coalition of New York’s Rising 40 under 40 Latino Stars in 2016 and has received recognition from City & State’s Bronx Power 50, Bronx Power 100 and Latino Power 100. In 2020, Samelys ran as a Homes Guarantee candidate for Congress in New York’s 15th Congressional District of the Bronx.

Accessibility

We regret we will not be able to provide ASL interpretation for this event.

Please email any access needs/requests to mneptune@barnard.edu.

This event is free and open to all. RSVP here. 

View the Livestream.