The Creative Placemaking Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jordan Carter and Lynne McCormack
At LISC, we believe creative placemaking can and must be inclusive and equitable to everyone, reflecting the hopes, dreams and desires of community members, including traditionally marginalized groups.
The sixth and final episode of “The Creative Placemaking Podcast” Season One features Liz Ogbu, founder of Studio O. Liz is a designer, urbanist, and social innovator, who focuses on sustainable design and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments around the world. She’s earned degrees in architecture from both Harvard and Wellesley College and has spent several years at the head of the classroom as a teacher at the California College of the Arts, UC Berkeley, Stanford’s Design School, and the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. On the podcast, Liz touches upon a wide range of topics from her work advocating for spatial and racial justice in Oakland, CA to a few of her favorite poems that get her through the day. Join us as we speak the inquisitive, Ms. Liz Ogbu!
The fifth episode of the “How To Do Creative Placemaking Podcast” features Adriane Jefferson, Director of Arts, Culture, and Tourism in the City of New Haven, CT. Adriane began this role at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and has expertly united community members through various arts and mental health initiatives and virtual engagements to instill a sense of togetherness in New Haven. A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and mother of one, Adriane discusses how her sorority affiliation and profound sense of blackness has guided her work as a creative placemaking practitioner and youth advocate. Join us as we speak the hard-working, Ms. Adriane Jefferson!
The fourth episode of the “How To Do Creative Placemaking Podcast” features Michael O’Bryan, Senior Manager of Youth Programs at Village of Arts and Humanities, an organization focused on incorporating the arts and community development in North Philadelphia. Michael’s work focuses on implementing “trauma-informed” community development to strengthen the social fabric of minority neighborhoods. During the interview, Michael touches upon a wide array of topics including his upbringing in New England, the impact of white supremacy on our own concept of humanity, and how our body’s natural homeostasis makes it difficult for us to enact individual change. Join us as we share space with Mr. Michael O’Bryan!
On the third episode of “The Creative Placemaking Podcast”, Jordan and Lynne speak to Roger Cummings, founder of Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA) located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Roger is multi-talented artist and community activist who has been navigating various obstacles in his work building an ar response to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting his community from violence after George Floyd’s death, and restructuring JXTA after his wife and JXTA’s co-founder, DeAnna Cummings, transitioned to another organization. Join the LISC Creative Placemaking Team as Roger describes how the unity of black activists and white anarchists helped to inspire creative placemaking in real time and the artist’s role during times of political violence and unrest.
The second episode of the “How To Do Creative Placemaking Podcast” features Jordyn Jay of Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (BTFA). Reporting live from Brooklyn, New York, Jordyn discusses her upbringing as a Florida-native and how encounters with racial prejudice and academic isolation inspired her to host revolutionary open-mics at New York University in November 2019 that led to her founding of Black Trans Femmes in the Arts! Join us as we interviewthe illustrious, Ms. Jordyn Jay!
Welcome to "The Creative Placemaking Podcast" hosted by Jordan Carter and Lynne McCormack! This podcast was created to honor folks using arts and culture to address systems of inequality and developing creative methods of eradicating said systems. The first episode of the “How To Do Creative Placemaking Podcast” features Afro-Urbanist, Lauren Hood. Reporting live from Detroit, Michigan, Lauren touches upon many topics during our conversation including her “community development awakening”, the cons of assimilating, and finding her way back to the culture. She also discusses the ways in which creative placemaking can sometimes miss the mark for black communities and offers solutions for these missteps. Join the LISC Creative Placemaking Team as we engage the brilliant mind of Lauren Hood!