Community Conversations: who designs the city?
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7TH - 5 PM
at Soulpepper Theatre, 50 Tank House Lane
with Diana Chan McNally, Faizaan Khan, Josh O'Kane & Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Community Conversations are supported by the TD Ready Commitment
The work of designing a city is never complete, nor is it neutral. Many stakeholders influence outcomes of how we arrange our built environments: private equity, landowners, big tech, developers, government agencies, among others, and to varying degrees. When it comes to making decisions about infrastructure, services and public spaces, who is allowed to exercise power and what values are prioritized?
In this edition of Community Conversations, we invite a panel of speakers who research, write and organize around issues in the city including encampments, development and anti-displacement, to discuss the politics of urban design.
Presented in conjunction with The Master Plan, on stage November 26 - December 29.
Register required, please RSVP below!
speakers
Diana Chan McNally is a community and crisis worker in Toronto’s downtown east side. As someone with lived experience of social services and being unhoused, Diana’s work focuses on human rights and equity issues for people who are experiencing homelessness, and she is particularly involved in rights protections for residents of encampments. Diana is also a consultant with The Shift on the issue of encampments, and has served on the steering committee of Health Providers Against Poverty. She is an alumna of Maytree Policy School, a fellow of the McNally Project for Paramedicine Research, a Board Director of the Chinese-Canadian Intercultural Association, and a founding member of the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust.
Faizaan Khan is an emerging designer, researcher, and cultural planner. His practice prioritizes collaboration, community, empathy and wit. Faizaan has been involved in many projects, including public art installations, urban design master plans, program evaluations, and design-thinking education. His research focuses on cultural heritage, racialized urban peripheries, place-keeping and anti-displacement. Faizaan has just completed his Masters degree in urban planning, with a background in architectural studies. He currently works part-time as a research assistant on the Building Inclusive Neighbourhoods Project and is excited to pursue new opportunities.
Josh O’Kane has been a reporter with The Globe and Mail since 2011. He covers the intersection of arts and business in Canada, after spending the past five years reporting on technology companies and how their decisions affect society. His latest book, Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, is a national bestseller, a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was named one of the best books of 2022 by The Globe and Mail, CBC, The Hill Times and numerous other publications. His newspaper journalism has also won numerous Canadian and international awards. Josh has reported extensively from the Atlantic provinces and Germany and is based in Toronto.
moderator
Elamin Abdelmahmoud is the host of CBC Radio’s daily arts, pop culture and entertainment show COMMOTION, and a former writer for BuzzFeed News. His work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Rolling Stone and others. Elamin is the author of Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces, a number one national bestseller, a Globe 100 book, and a New York Times notable book.
free admission
Registration required:
Inquiries can be sent to event organizer Jacqui Arntfield: jacqui.arntfield@soulpepper.ca