The Shape of Cities to Come Institute’s (SCCI) inaugural cohort convenes place-based community leaders, cultural workers, neighborhood actors, and urban activists from various areas of justice across the city—anti-gentrification and -displacement work, housing justice, abolition of the carceral state, migrant justice, queer and trans liberation, ecological care, and much more.

Together, our peers will foster solidarities that sustain and amplify ongoing work on the ground, and center the voices of New York City's working-class and BIPOC neighborhoods and communities.

Antoinette Martinez,
Genesis Aquino, and Rodrigo Camarena

TOPICS: Housing justice, Tenant rights, Immigrant rights

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Sunset Park

BOROUGH: Brooklyn

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

TOPICS: Housing justice, Tenant rights, Community land trusts

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Uptown

BOROUGH: Manhattan

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Avi Garelick
and Paloma Lara

Canal Street
Research Association

TOPICS: Cultural organizing, anti-gentrification, anti-displacement

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Chinatown,
Little Italy, Soho, TriBeCa

BOROUGH: Manhattan

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Cheryl
Rivera

TOPICS: Abolition, Black liberation, mutual aid

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Crown Heights

BOROUGH: Brooklyn

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Chinatown
Art Brigade

TOPICS: Cultural organizing, public art, anti-gentrification, anti-displacement

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Chinatown

BOROUGH: Manhattan

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Maansi
Shah

TOPICS: Tenant rights, Housing justice

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Jamaica, Flushing

BOROUGH: Queens

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Quito
Ziegler

TOPICS: Indigenous rights, Anti-displacement, Environmental justice

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Far Rockaway

BOROUGH: Queens, Citywide

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Rodrigo
Brandão

TOPICS: Queer liberation, Immigrant rights, Filmmaking

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Jackson Heights

BOROUGH: Queens

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Tania
Mattos

TOPICS: Abolition, Immigrant rights, Anti-gentrification, Environmental justice, Indigenous rights

NEIGHBORHOOD(S): Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst

BOROUGH: Queens

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

EXTENDED PEERS / PROJECT ADVISORS

Arpan
Somani

ROLE: Extended Peer / Project Advisor

TOPICS: Digital equity, Accessible technology

NEIGHBORHOODS: N/A

BOROUGH: Brooklyn, Citywide

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24

Cynthia
Tobar

ROLE: Extended Peer / Project Advisor

TOPICS: Oral history, Archival work, Filmmaking, Anti-gentrification, Anti-displacement, Public art

NEIGHBORHOODS: Bushwick, University Heights, Flushing

BOROUGH: Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx

COHORT YEAR: 2023-24