Join us for our first Storefront Salon: 'Militarized Metropolis - the Life and Death of Public Space,' facilitated by Mabel O. Wilson, Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University GSAPP, and Bayeté Ross Smith, Associate Program Director for the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI).

In the era of Occupy, clashes between the public and the police have become routine civic encounters in the downtowns of New York, Hong Kong, London, Istanbul, Athens, Madrid, and many other global cities. These protests followed the tumultuous months of civil disobedience in the central squares and streets of cities involved in the Arab Spring: Cairo, Tunis, Manama, and Tripoli.

In the US, media attention has been sparked by recent protests in Ferguson, Missouri in response to the murder of unarmed black youth Michael Brown by a white police officer. Protests were greeted with the brute force of armed National Guard, state troopers, and local police. In New York, the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD inspired indignation and public outcry in the form of marches and gatherings in downtown Manhattan.

Revolutionary Frantz Fanon observed in the mid 20th century that institutions of education, work, church, and family maintained the moral order of capitalist society, which in turn lightened the task of policing. At the same time, in Europe's colonies, the policeman and the soldier served as "instituted go-betweens, the spokesmen of the settler, and his rule of oppression." The police and the soldier maintained contact with the native and advised him "by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge."

How do we make sense of increased violence the public spaces of our cities? Does the escalation of a militarized police enact the will of the state's power, and if so, for whom and against whom? Do the surveillance apparatuses of CCTV cameras, bollards, metal safety barriers, guard booths, and a host of other architectures of security move beyond securitization to deaden civic protest? Is the protest tactic of the "die-in" emblematic of a militarized public space?

We hope you'll be able to join us to discuss the intersections between urban violence, public space, civic protest, and the security state in our cities today. Read more.

Registration is not required, but feel free to RSVP on Facebook, or drop us a line if you plan on attending.

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