The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places w/ Photographer & Urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
Past Member Event - View photographs and hear stories from Bendiner-Viani's latest book about the everyday places that are vital to building community!
Discover the connection between belonging and place
Learn about the essential role of everyday places in building coherent societies, and helping people talk across difference, especially in a polarized society
See how everyday places can help to overcome the epidemic of loneliness
Examine the impact of changing neighborhoods, gentrification, and development
Find out what "visual urbanism" is!
About this Event:
Where would you take someone on a guided tour of your neighborhood? In this talk, building on her new book The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places, photographer and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani introduces us to the complex, political, and eminently personable stories of residents who answered this question in Brooklyn, New York, and Oakland, California. Their universal stories and Bendiner-Viani's evocative images illuminate what's at stake in our everyday places—from diners to churches to donut shops. In this culmination of two decades of research and art practice, Bendiner-Viani intertwines the personal, historical, and photographic to present us with placework, the way that unassuming places foster a sense of belonging and do the essential work of helping us become communities, laying the foundation for a functional interconnected society, even in the most polarized of times. Bendiner-Viani shows us how to understand ourselves as part of a shared society, with a shared fate; she shows us that everyday places can be the spaces of liberation in which we can build the cities we need.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani is a visual urbanist and cofounder of the interdisciplinary studio Buscada. She is the author of The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places (MIT Press, 2024) and Contested City: Art and Public History as Mediation at New York’s Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (University of Iowa Press, 2019), a finalist and honoree for the Brendan Gill Award. A widely exhibited photographer, she was a professor of urban studies at the New School for a decade and a fellow at the International Center of Photography and the Centre for Urban Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London. She holds a doctorate in Environmental Psychology from the Graduate Center, CUNY.
All photos by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
This post contains affiliate links, which means Untapped New York earns a commission. There is no extra cost to you and the commissions earned help us support our mission of independent journalism!
How do I sign up for this event?
If you are not a member yet, become one today at the Enthusiast level or higher to gain access to virtual events like this one!
If you are an Untapped New York Insiders, simply login to your Insider account using the round icon in the bottom right corner of this screen. Once logged in, clock on the “Book Now” button to book this event for free!
Can’t login to your Insiders account?
Please make sure you are trying to sign in with the correct email address. If you have more than one email address please try logging in with all of them, that will solve this issue 99% of the time. Check out our FAQ for videos and more help documents.
I registered already, how do I join the event?
After signing up for the event, you will receive an email with a link from Zoom. Simply click on this link to join the event! Please check your junk mail if you can’t find your Zoom link.
I missed the event, can I watch the replay?
Yes you can! Simply go to the on-demand video archive and stream over 250 past webinars, including this one. You will also get a link with the recording of the webinar as soon as it ends
