Design Week Portland 2020:
How to Take Up Space
August 2020
How to Take Up Space was hosted on August 6, 2020 with about 50 online attendees. The original event description can be found here. I facilitated a conversation with four phenomenal panelists who presented different angles on inclusive design and spatial justice.
The full transcript for this event can be found here, slides here, and video here.
You deserve to take up space.
We'll say it again: you deserve to take up space!
Many of us have encountered experiences or spaces in our lives where we have had to shrink ourselves to fit in. Maybe it was being squeezed painfully by the arms of a theater chair that was too small for our body, or getting the stink eye from a stranger at a park for enjoying our music too loudly, or choosing to stay home instead of attend an exciting event because the venue was not accessible to our physical needs.
We have also hopefully been places where we felt free to be our full selves: to spread our limbs and move intuitively, to express how we really feel, to breathe deeply. Comfort is an essential element in our ability to be our most expansive selves, and the spaces and systems in which we operate have an immense impact on our well-being. Our shared COVID experience has made us all the more aware of the pain of inaccess to our beloved places. Recent protesting has angled a focused lens toward the question of who has the right to our public spaces.
In this event, we discussed:
What are the elements of inclusive design that allow all kinds of people to be more at ease and show up authentically?
What does the personal practice of authenticity look like in a world that is not necessarily designed for us to be comfortable being ourselves?
We can practice taking up space by holding space for others. We are more powerful changemakers as a community! This event will emphasized building connection across creative fields and elevating other awesome folks who are helping us be authentic people and inclusive designers. This event featured the incredible:
Allison Jacks - Dance Church instructor, choreographer of contemporary dance and culinary experiences - discussing how we get comfortable taking up space with our own bodies and beliefs
Rebecca Alexander - Founder and CEO of AllGo, an app that helps people of size go out more with less anxiety - envisioning what truly inclusive businesses and interior spaces could look like
Dr. Lisa Bates - Professor of urban planning and community engagement, regular voice of reason on OPB/NPR - reinforcing our right to participate in the development and use of space at a city scale
M. Sabine Rear - Writer, teacher, and award-winning Blind Illustratrix - addressing ableism in politics and public spaces through the lens of artistic expression
Hannah Silver (Panel Facilitator) - Passionate inclusive design educator with a background in sustainable architecture and equitable urban planning - ensuring we cover all scales of spatial design and elevate important voices