Women as Public Intellectuals: Jane Jacobs Forum Nov. 8 in NYC

Can you imagine New York City with a huge elevated expressway cutting through the East Village and Lower East Side? Well if it had not been for Jane Jacobs and a pioneering group of urban planning activists downtown, New York would now exist in the shadow of an elevated highway. The grassroots collective took on the might of Robert Moses and City Hall and successfully campaigned to preserve their neighborhood and safeguard the fabric of a living and vital city.

Jane Jacobs was an urban thinker, a public activist, and a grassroots organizer. She used her personal experience as an engaged citizen to change the way Americans think about cities, society, and neighborhood activism. Her legacy has influenced urban planners, architects, designers, engineers, activists and artists -- pretty much anyone who thinks about public space and collective responses to bureaucratic policy.

We are pleased to invite you to celebrate this fantastic legacy -- and the legacy of other similarly engaged citizens, Rachel Carson and Betty Friedan -- at the 2011 Municipal Art Society Jane Jacobs Forum, Women as Public Intellectuals. The November 8 event will feature a discussion among journalist and urban critic, Roberta Brandes Gratz; professor and MSNBC commentator, Melissa V. Harris-Perry; author, Sally Helgesen; and activist, Urvashi Vaid. The panel will be moderated by Robin Pogrebin, arts and culture reporter for the New York Times.

Without courageous women like Jacobs, Carson and Friedan, public life and activism would be a very different beast. We all owe a debt of gratitude to these intelligent, impassioned and inspiring women.

Event details:

Tuesday, November 8
6:30-8:00pm
The Elebash Hall
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York City

Learn more and RSVP.