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Minneapolis Parks Foundation > Common Ground > News Releases > Race, Place, and Representation, a conversation with Kofi Boone, Tabitha Montgomery, and Paul Bauknight, opens the 2021-2022 season of the Next Generation of Parks Event Series, Oct. 7

Race, Place, and Representation, a conversation with Kofi Boone, Tabitha Montgomery, and Paul Bauknight, opens the 2021-2022 season of the Next Generation of Parks Event Series, Oct. 7

Ambreen Tariq and Mikyoung Kim are slated to round-out the season in 2022

Minneapolis, Minn. – The Minneapolis Parks Foundation opens its 2021-2022 season of the Next Generation of Parks Event Series with a powerful conversation about Race, Place, and Representation, featuring Kofi Boone, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University, and Tabitha Montgomery, Executive Director of the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association. The event is free and will be presented virtually on Zoom and Facebook live on Thursday, October 7, at 7:00pm. Register via Eventbrite for the Zoom link.

Boone and Montgomery will be joined by Paul Bauknight, the Parks Foundation’s Project Implementation Director, who will help frame this conversation around places, projects, and communities here in the Twin Cities. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of how diverse communities experience public space, as well as the transformative work being done to center BIPOC design and designers in the creation and re-creation of vital places where we connect as a society.

“Our aspirations for civic assets like parks, schools, libraries – and vital spaces within the public realm, like Lake Street here in Minneapolis – are that they will positively impact the lives of the people in our communities. However, these spaces and institutions are conceived, designed, developed, and managed within historic and present-day systemic and institutional racism,” says Bauknight. “This reality severely constrains the potential of these places and spaces to help create a just and equitable future for all of our community members.”

About Our Speakers

Kofi Boone’s work is in the overlap between landscape architecture and environmental justice with specializations in democratic design, digital media, and interpreting cultural landscapes. Kofi’s teaching and professional work have earned awards including student and professional ASLA awards. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Corps Network, The Black Land Loss Prevention Project, as well as the Landscape Architecture Foundation where he is President-Elect. Kofi serves on the advisory board of The Black Landscape Architects Network. He has published work broadly in peer reviewed as well as popular media.

Tabitha Montgomery is passionate about serving people. She is currently the Executive Director of the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA) where she and the staff proactively look for creative ways to advance its advocacy, events, and programs in the community. Tabitha has spent more than twenty years tapping into her gifts of management, communication, and visioning to serve a wide array of people, businesses, and organizations. 

Paul D. Bauknight Jr. is an architect, urban designer, design activist and community leader. Working in community-based design and development for over 30 years, he is passionately committed to working at the intersection of social, cultural, economic, and spatial systems creating solutions that are equitable steeped in place and benefit the community. As the Project Implementation Director for the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, he leads the foundation’s physical projects and outreach to communities and public institutions. A senior affiliate at the Minnesota Design Center he also serves on the following boards Friends of the Mississippi River, The Givens Foundation and the Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement where he is the chair.

Next Generation of Parks Season Continues in 2022

For over 10 years, the Next Generation of Parks Event Series has demystified the intersection of parks and public space with the most important issues affecting our community, including equity and race, climate change and sustainability, and health and wellbeing.

The 2021-2022 season will continue in the new year, with family-friendly Winter Hiking 101 on Saturday, February 5, 2022, featuring author and founder of @BrownPeopleCamping Ambreen Tariq, and co-presented with The Great Northern. Internationally renowned designer Mikyoung Kim is slated to present on human-centered design in April.

About the Minneapolis Parks Foundation

Since 2003, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation has raised more than $25 million for transformative parks and programming in Minneapolis parks by aligning philanthropic investment and community vision. Today, the Parks Foundation champions equitable investment in Minneapolis parks through the RiverFirst Initiative and Reimagining the Civic Commons and is responsible for private fundraising and implementation of the Water Works and Great Northern Greenway River Link projects. The Parks Foundation also supports community-based parks projects with the People for Parks Fund, and explores the intersection of parks and today’s most pressing issues by presenting the Next Generation of Parks™ Event Series. Learn more at MplsParksFoundation.org.

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