Brownsville: Building in Place

Brownsville: Building in Place

A conversation among community leaders on the progress of The Brownsville Plan and working together to revitalize the neighborhood with and for longstanding residents. Including Genese Morgan, Brooklyn Community Board 16 Chairperson; Taurean C. Lewis, Community Engagement Specialist, Brownsville Partnership Inc. and additional guests in a conversation moderated by Ifeoma Ebo, Creative Urban Alchemy and Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia GSAPP.

Ifeoma Ebo is an experienced Urban Designer & Strategist with a proven track record in transforming public spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. In her twenty-year career she has led projects in architecture, urban revitalization, community / large scale masterplanning, infrastructure upgrading, urban policy, and neighborhood development. Through leadership roles in urban design & development initiatives funded by the United Nations, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), and the NYC Mayors Office she has excelled in managing multidisciplinary teams towards the planning, design, and implementation of projects supporting racial, social, and cultural equity. As the founding Director of Creative Urban Alchemy LLC she is a highly sought-after consultant for city governments and civic institutions on community design, regenerative placemaking and the equitable transformation of urban space.

She has served on Advisory Boards for the Mayor of Helsingborg, Sweden H22 Smart City Initiative, Association for Community Design, Museum of Modern Art, The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and is a member of the Dark Matter University network and a founding member of the BlackSpace Urbanist Collective. She is a 2010 Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow, 2016 NYC Urban Design Forum Forefront Fellow and 2016 Next City Vanguard Fellow. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University and Columbia University and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Master in City Design and Development from MIT.

Taurean Lewis is a Community Engagement Specialist and a life-long resident of Brownsville and former participant of the Brownsville Partnership, Taurean worked with staff to prevent her eviction and overcome her housing crisis. She has 20+ years of community organizing experience and is a proactive, results driven, empathetic and dedicated community organizer with a deep passion for racial and economic justice and a determination to enact positive change through grassroots, collective action.

Genese T. Morgan, a native of Brooklyn, New York is the Chairperson of Brooklyn Community Board 16; which serves the Ocean Hill-Brownsville neighborhood of New York City. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University and holds both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts Degree in Accounting. Her accounting experience spans 20 years and includes work in the private, public, non-profit and academic sectors. She currently serves as Senior Project and Business Manager of the Brownsville Community Development Corporation. As a long-standing member of Community Board 16’s Economic Development Committee, she has been a strong advocate for local workforce development, small business services, and M/WBE opportunities.

Image: Brownsville Forward mural by Groundswell part of the Transform/Restore: Brownsville initiative.