Undesign the Redline @ Barnard Symposium

Undesign the Redline @ Barnard is an interactive exhibition combining history, art, and storytelling with community outreach and collaboration to reckon with systemic racism and the legacy of redlining in the neighborhoods occupied by Barnard College and Columbia University. Working with Designing the WE, a local social design studio, members of Barnard’s neighborhood, including faculty, students, and unaffiliated community members, created a collaborative exhbition tracing the history of redlining in Morningside Heights and Harlem to its present day consequences.

DAY ONE – FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19th – Click here to RSVP

9:00-9:15 a.m.  Opening Remarks

9:15-10:15 a.m. 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 a.m. Educational Policy from Redlining to the Climate/COVID Crisis

Moderated by E. Kitzmiller, Faculty in Education, Barnard College

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.

1:00-2:00 p.m.  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.

2:30-3:30 p.m. Digital Redlining 

Moderated by Saima Akhtar, Associate Director, Vagelos Computational Science Center

Panelists: Emmanuel Martinez, Investigative Data Journalist at The Markup, and Chris Gillard, a Detroit-based writer, professor and speaker on digital privacy.

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 p.m. 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 – 7 p.m. Keynote address by Peggy Shepard, Co-founder and Executive Director of WE-ACT for Environmental Justice – click here to RSVP

Peggy Shepard has 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.

RSVP for Day One

DAY TWO – SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20th – Click here to RSVP

11:00 -12:30 a.m. 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; Safia Southey,  Graduate Researcher, Dual BA with Sciences Po and Columbia ‘21; and 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 p.m.  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.

RSVP for Day Two

About Undesign the Redline @ Barnard

Undesign the Redline @ Barnard is an interactive exhibition combining history, art, and storytelling with community outreach and collaboration in order to reckon with systemic racism by examining the legacy of redlining in Barnard and Columbia’s neighborhood. Working with Designing the WE, a local social design studio, members of Barnard’s neighborhood, including faculty, students, and unaffiliated community members, will create a collaborative exhbition tracing the history of redlining in Morningside Heights and Harlem to its present day legacies.

The #barnardundesign Syllabus is a project supported by the Barnard Digital Humanities Center. We will be using Wax to create a digital archive of contributions to the collaborative syllabus which is part of the Undesign the Redline @ Barnard learning community.

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Project Leads

• Miriam Neptune, Senior Associate Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women
• Mary Rocco, Term Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Barnard College
• Vanessa Thill, (BC ‘13) Milstein Center Exhibits Coordinator

Content Design and Curation

• April De Simone
• Charles Chawalko

Barnard Undesign Planning Committee

• Saima Akhtar, Associate Director of the Vagelos Computational Science Center, Barnard College
• Ariana Allensworth, artist and Founding Member of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
• Logan Brenner, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
• Zakiya Collier, Digital Archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
• Elizabeth Cook, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
• Jennie Correia, Research & Instruction Librarian for the Social Sciences and Associate Director of Teaching, Learning and Digital Scholarship (BLAIS)
• Anique Edwards (BC ‘24)
• Kaiama L. Glover, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of French and Africana Studies and Faculty Director, Digital Humanities Center (DHC), Barnard College
• Anne Janowski (BC ’23) History and Anthropology
• Fatima Zohra Koli, Associate Director of the Empirical Reasoning Center (BLAIS)
• Ana Lam (BC ’20), DHC Post-Baccalaureate Fellow ‘20-‘21
• Daniela Lebron (BC ’22) American Studies and Political Science
• Jazmin Maço (BC ‘21), DHC Post-Baccalaureate Fellow ‘21-‘22
• Mikako Murphy (BC ’22) Urban Studies
• Vani Natarajan, Research and Instruction Librarian for Cultural Studies, Literary Analysis, and Writing (BLAIS)
• Obden Mondésir, Associate Director of the Barnard Archives & Special Collections
• Michael Partis, Executive Director of Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
• Alicia Peaker, Associate Director, Digital Humanities Center (DHC)
• Alex Pittman, Associate Director, Center for Engaged Pedagogy (CEP)
• Pamela Phillips, Senior Program Assistant, Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) and founder/creator, Changing the Narrative project
• Jennifer Rosales, Executive Director of the CEP, Barnard College
• Zara Simba (BC ‘24)
• Angela Simms, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Urban Studies, Barnard College
• Mariame Sissoko (BC ’24)
• Martha Tenney, Director of the Barnard Archives & Special Collections
• Annabelle Tseng, Graduate Assistant for the CEP, Barnard College
• Saraly Vargas (BC ’22), Sociology
• Meredith Wisner, Research & Instruction Librarian for Anthropology, Art & Architecture (BLAIS).

Installation by Alicia Garrett and Andy Marziano, with gratitude to Israel Caban, Deborah Alleyne, Lenny Langer, Jahmal Denny, and the Barnard Facilities and Custodial Staff.

Thanks to:

• Máximo Rafael Colón, photographer
• Asamia Diaby, Organizer, Alliance for Quality Education
• Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Professor of Urban Policy and Health, The New School
• Terra Graziani, Co-Founder, the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
• Cammie Jones, Executive Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion, Barnard College
• Gregory Jost, Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association
• Beck Jordan-Young, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College
• Erika Kitzmiller, Term Assistant Professor, Education, Barnard College
• Katherine Mella, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
• Dr. Chandler Miranda, Term Assistant Professor, Urban Studies, Barnard College
• Dr. Rose Muzio, Old Westbury, SUNY Department of Politics, Economics, and Law
• The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation
• Michael Palma Mir, Member of Community Board 9, Co-Founder of the HDFC Coalition
• Denise Rickles, Cheryl Pahaham, and Northern Manhattan is Not for Sale
• Naomi Schiller, Brooklyn College CUNY
• Peggy Shepard and Chris Dobens, WE ACT
• Brianna Sturkey (BC ‘20)
• Shirley Taylor, Director of Education, Apollo Theater
• Chris Walters and Lena Afridi, Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development
• The Undesign Reading group members and charrette participants.

This program is funded by Barnard Library and Academic Information Services, Barnard Engages, Barnard Center for Research on Women, Barnard Engages- NY, a grant from Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an Addressing Racism Seed Grant from the Trustees of Columbia University and a Climate of Inclusiveness award from the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Columbia University. Special thanks to the Barnard Development Team: Liane Carlson, Kayla McCaffrey, and Kari Steeves

Co-sponsors

• Barnard Digital Humanities Center
• The Barnard–Columbia Urban Studies Program
• The Center for Engaged Pedagogy