Summer greetings SCCI's old and new friends!
Slowly, but surely, we are on our way to collectively laying the foundations of The Shape of Cities to Come Institute / SCCI. An inspiring name such as this needs inspiring work to match up, and it has been an honor to meet many of you directly in the last month and hear about how much NYC-based urban activists (and those based in cities around the world) have found the need to build, strategize and organize in community through a program like STUDY. PLAY. ACT.
While our humble first offering emerges in partnership with some of you, a larger amorphous group is starting to come together through the applications we are receiving from all over the city. The excitement and enthusiasm of folks hailing from so many diverse backgrounds and fields have motivated us to make sure that this process becomes more than just a bureaucratic application form—evolving instead into the first sparks of a network of solidarity among urban activists that can shape our cities together under increasingly challenging circumstances.
Our peers will be selected not only because of their longstanding commitment to just, equitable, and compassionate cities, but also because of alignments with each other's work and movements. We hope for peers to be able to nurture their own projects and communities through this program, but equally importantly, to be able to intertwine into, intersect through, and benefit the projects of other peers. We aspire for this to be a transformative experience, not just for those who are selected by our panel, but also for us—the organizers, partners, and collaborators—and for SCCI projects to wake up into their own beings that can breathe, thrive, and sustain beyond the 15 months that we will spend together.
Many of you have told us that you need a little more time to submit your applications. As we begin our review process, we will continue to accept rolling applications until 12 am on Friday, August 4th.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and please don't think twice about writing to me to share your thoughts, ideas, and questions. SCCI's founding board and I have received overwhelming support from those who have walked alongside us on our own long journeys as urban activists and we are grateful for all the love. In future newsletters we will keep introducing new members of this community, so stay tuned!
This is going to be an exciting adventure—I hope that you will stay in touch and join us.
Take care,
