Join us for the Contested City book launch! Free and open to the public!
Please RSVP on eventbrite here.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
The New School, Theresa Lang Center
55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10011
RSVP
Join urbanist, artist, and New School professor Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani to celebrate the launch of her book Contested City: Art and Public History as Mediation at New York’s Seward Park Urban Renewal Area.
Revealing the untold stories of fifty years of community activism at the controversial Seward Park Urban Renewal Area on New York’s Lower East Side — now the site of the mega-development Essex Crossing — ContestedCity sheds light on the importance of collaborative creative public projects in this complex place. Bridging art, design, activism, and urban history, this is a book for everyone who seeks to make their own city more just.
Ada Calhoun, author of St. Marks Is Dead, says of Contested City: “This underdeveloped piece of downtown Manhattan has long confounded New Yorkers. With scholarly rigor and deep respect for community, Dr. Bendiner-Viani uncovers its secrets at last. Her research has resonance for controversial ‘urban renewal’ projects everywhere.”
The evening will feature a presentation by Gabrielle, along with reflections from her long-time collaborators Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) and Tito Delgado, former SPURA resident and SPARC member. Join us for the conversation, the book-signing, and the celebration of the past and future of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area.
This event is sponsored by the Urban Studies department at The New School.
For more on the book: www.contestedcitybook.com
Listen to Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani interviewed about Contested City on WNYC’s All of It with Alison Stewart
For review copies/media inquiries, contact Allison T Means, University of Iowa Press: allison-means@uiowa.edu
