Events

Rising Urbanists: Queering Landscapes

Rising Urbanists: A Seat at the Table

The City College ASLA-NY Student Chapter is hosting its 8th annual Rising Urbanist conference on Saturday, April 26th, starting at 9:45am.
$15 for ASLA Members. $25 for non-members. Free for students.

In the 2025 installment of Rising Urbanists, "Queering Landscapes", We spotlight Queer perspectives, works, and spaces in Landscape Architecture and other related fields. The conference will delve into the many meanings of Queerness through social space, ecology, design, aesthetics, and more. We will explore how practitioners in our field can integrate these concepts into our profession. In crafting this conference, we hope to encourage transdisciplinary dialogue that bridges the gap between designers and the social and ecological systems we work with.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

Keynote speakers:
Mel Michelle Lewis, author of Biomythography Bayou
David Rubin, Founding Principal, Land Collective

4.5 LACES CEUs- Approved

Sessions and Speakers:

9:45am
Coffee and Registration

10:20am
Opening Remarks
Marta Gutman, Dean, Spitzer School of Architecture

10:30- 11:45 am
Panel: Queer Placemaking and Activism

Panelists:
Timothy Leonard, National Parks Conservation Association Hila the Earth, Eco-Rapper, Comedian, and Content Creator
Kari Roynesdal, Urban Planner/Designer, Agency Landscape + Planning
Moderator:
Sonia Uthuph (MLA '25)

12:00- 1:00 pm
Keynote presentation: Queer Provocations: Nature, Culture, Place

Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis, Lead Coach & Consultant, The Art of Change Agency

2:00-3:15 pm
Panel: The Aesthetics of Decay

Panelists:
Wendy Andringa, Founder & Principal, Assemblage
Patrick Costello, Artist of ecological horticulture, installation, printmaking, and performance

Moderator:
Lizette Avineri (MLA '25)

3:30- 4:30 pm
Keynote presentation

David Rubin, Founding Principal, Land Collective

4:40 pm
Closing Performance

Hila the Earth

5:30- 7:30pm
Happy Hour Winnie Said

About Rising Urbanists
Since 2017, the Student ASLA Chapter of City College has been organizing and hosting Rising Urbanists, a full day conference in which we examine a topic within our field of landscape architecture and urban planning from a framework of social and environmental justice. Our goal is to create an interdisciplinary space where people with varied backgrounds in practice and academia can have a challenging and productive discussion on the annual topic. We are proud of this tradition and are dedicated to continuing the legacy of this kind of student-led and -organized space.

About Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis

Lead Coach & Consultant, The Art of Change Agency

Dr. Mel cultivates critical voices and creative visions for sustainable practice, structural change, environmental justice, and social transformation as a thought leader and change agent. Previously, they provided strategic guidance on social and environmental justice initiatives and creative visioning for the future of clean water for people and nature as Vice President for People, Justice, and Cultural Affairs at American Rivers. Rooted in the Gulf South's folklore, dialect, foodways, music, art, and landscapes, Dr. Mel's creative work explores nature writing themes in rural coastal settings through the lens of Black, Creole, and Afrolndigenous knowledges. Their book Biomythography Bayou is available via The Griot Project Book Series at Bucknell University Press. Dr. Mel served as an Affiliated Researcher with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Professor and Chair of Studio and Humanistic Studies (Maryland Institute College of Art), Director of the Center for Geographies of Justice, the Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Department, and Africana Studies Department (Goucher College), and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies (Saint Mary's College of California).

About David Rubin

Founding Principal, Land Collective

David A. Rubin, PLA, FASLA, FAAR is the founding principal of DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning studio committed to practicing socially-purposeful design. David's visionary contribution to the field in "empathy-driven design" is a hallmark of the studio, earning increasing renown for fusing issues of social justice in cities with excellence in the design of public spaces. His projects have received awards and honors from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Institute of Architects, among others. David was recently appointed by the State Department to The Bureau of Overseas Building Operations (OBO) Industry Advisory Group to advise the U.S. government on best practices in landscape architecture.

REGISTER HERE

We look forward to seeing you there!