The Cities We Need by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani | Book Launch & Conversation
About the Event
Come celebrate the release of The Cities We Need, a captivating book of prose and photographs that shows how the everyday places around us play a big role in making us feel connected to our communities and our neighbors. In this special book, photographer and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, a long-time collaborator with The Laundromat Project, takes us on a journey through the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York, and Oakland, California. She shares the personal stories of residents who remind us why these seemingly simple places––such as diners, churches, and donut shops––are so important to our communities.
Through powerful images and stories, Bendiner-Viani explores how these familiar spots are more than just places we pass by––they’re the backbone of our communities. As our cities face challenges like gentrification, big development, and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Cities We Need shows us what we gain from these spaces and what we risk losing.
Join us to discover how everyday places can be spaces of change, crucial for our health, justice, and the kind of cities we all need.
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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.
In Conversation With
Blondel A. Pinnock is the President and CEO of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration
Corporation (BSRC), the nation’s first and oldest Community Development Corporation.
She is the first woman to hold that position in BSRC’s 55 year history. Prior to joining
BSRC, Ms. Pinnock served as Chief Lending Officer for Carver Federal Savings Bank,
the largest publicly traded black-managed bank in the US at that time. There, she was the
first woman to hold the title of Chief Lending Officer and President of Carver
Community Development Corporation.
Blondel is a panelist and thought leader and has worked consistently in the area of wealth
creation and economic mobility for the BIPOC community for close to 30 years. Ms.
Pinnock’s passion for affordable housing and economic development was sparked during
her tenure at New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development,
where she served as counsel and ultimately deputy director for the Tax Incentives Unit.
While there she was responsible for issuing opinion letters and the operations of the
City’s numerous tax policies that incentivized the creation of affordable housing and
increased economic opportunities for city residents.
Ms. Pinnock earned a B.A. in History and Sociology from Columbia University and a
J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, and is a graduate of FleetBoston Financial
Credit Analysis Training Program. She currently resides in Westchester County and is
the proud mother of one son who is a recent college graduate.
Ayesha Williams is the executive director of The Laundromat Project (The LP), a New York City community-based arts organization dedicated to making sustained investments in growing a community of multiracial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary artists and neighbors committed to societal change. She is an arts professional with two decades of experience working with visual artists, presenting programs, and generating funding for commercial galleries and nonprofit institutions. Prior to The LP, she managed Visual Arts at Lincoln Center and served as the Director of Kent Gallery, New York. In addition to her professional experience, Ayesha is on the board of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought and The Black School, and a member of Independent Curators International Independents. She completed the Stanford Impact Program for Arts Leaders and served as a Steering Committee member of the UN Women's Conference (2016). She received her Master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University and Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from University of Southern California, Los Angeles.