The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’
On Storytelling
A true hero doesn’t know they’re the hero.
A true villain knows they’re the villain.
The innocent think they are guilty.
The guilty know they are guilty.
The truth-tellers fear liars.
Liars fear the truth-tellers.
Snippets from the Notebook
On Play
Play is not just an act of joy and pleasure but and exploration of our darker feelings; a space to also move to pain and sadness.
Play can let you experience your feelings and free you from living your feelings.
Questions Needing Answers
- What does the normalization of parkour create/why is it important?
- What can we do as individual practitioners to further the normalization of play in public space?
- How do spaces / places / communities permit or restrict individual movement?
- How do these permission/restrictions change based on identity, location.
- How can spaces be redesigned to be more permissive? How can laws or societal patterns be shifted to be more permissive?
- What can the emergence & practice of parkour or these types of interactive urban space activities (like parcon?) reveal about the deficiencies of our cities/spaces?
Whats the body in regards to mobility?
Something you own, that needs to be improved, maintained, fixed. Emotions, history as we relate to the spaces we live in. We interact with those spaces different due to those emotions/history? Our bodies are not neutral; processing truama/emotions through movement.
When we turn our bodies into property, we empty them of movement.
When we practice parkour, we dont just ineract with the architecture but the history there. We’re going to have different relationships to the place and we’re going to be moving with the architecture differently. How is there mobility for moving emotion, trauma, history? Whos history is illuminated through design?
We are always projecting things onto our architecture.
On Authenticity
Staging Conversations: I can test out versions of myself and pick the one that is most authentic and with greatest integrity
On Relationship Building
How can we move from the transactional to the transformative? I want reject consumerism and experience communion with my fellow humans; to move from the indifferent to the interactive.
The Third Place
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and those that one lives with. The “second place” is the workplace—where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.[1] In other words, “your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances.”[2]
Other scholars have summarized Oldenburg’s view of a third place with eight characteristics:[1][3]
Neutral ground
Occupants of third places have little to no obligation to be there. They are not tied down to the area financially, politically, legally, or otherwise and are free to come and go as they please.
Leveler (a leveling place)
Third places put no importance on an individual’s status in a society. Someone’s economic or social status does not matter in a third place, allowing for a sense of commonality among its occupants. There are no prerequisites or requirements that would prevent acceptance or participation in the third place.
Conversation is the main activity
Playful and happy conversation is the main focus of activity in third places, although it is not required to be the only activity. The tone of conversation is usually light-hearted and humorous; wit and good-natured playfulness are highly valued.
Accessibility and accommodation
Third places must be open and readily accessible to those who occupy them. They must also be accommodating, meaning they provide for the wants of their inhabitants, and all occupants feel their needs have been fulfilled.
The regulars
Third places harbor a number of regulars that help give the space its tone, and help set the mood and characteristics of the area. Regulars to third places also attract newcomers, and are there to help someone new to the space feel welcome and accommodated.
A low profile
Third places are characteristically wholesome. The inside of a third place is without extravagance or grandiosity, and has a homely feel. Third places are never snobby or pretentious, and are accepting of all types of individuals, from various different walks of life.
The mood is playful
The tone of conversation in third places is never marked with tension or hostility. Instead, third places have a playful nature, where witty conversation and frivolous banter are not only common, but highly valued.
A home away from home
Occupants of third places will often have the same feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging as they would in their own homes. They feel a piece of themselves is rooted in the space, and gain spiritual regeneration by spending time there.
Absence by Pablo Neruda
My love, We have found each other Thirsty and we have Drunk up all the water and the Blood, We found each other Hungry And we bit each other As fire bites, Leaving wounds in us. But wait for me, Keep for me your sweetness. I will give you too A rose.
What Are Parkour Parks?
This article is a part of the Public Parkour Park Roadmap Series by Caitlin Pontrella
This is a deceptively simple question. While there are maybe a dozen purpose-built parkour parks in North America as of 2020, informal parkour environments have existed all over the world in every single city in an unlimited number of forms for decades.
The reality is that the practice of parkour does not require a dedicated facility or location. Practitioners have been finding creative ways to transform the places they live into the places they play for over 30 years, discovering their own parkour parks and equipment in the wild–disguised as buildings, public squares, old playgrounds, large fountains, stairwells, construction scaffolding, and landscaping. (Wondering why should you bother with building a park if it can be practiced anywhere?)
Examples of parkour equipment in disguise
Benches
Bike Racks
Facades
Fences
Fire Escapes
Fountains
Handrailings
Mattresses
Ornamentation
Picnic Table
Puddles
Railroad Tracks
Retaining Walls
Road Markings
Rooftops
Scaffolding
Skateparks
Stairs
Trees
Wheelchair Ramps
I want you to start with this perspective: that everyone who has ever been in a park or public space has enjoyed a parkour environment. This is a powerful frame because it can open up new perspectives on how to enroll the wider community in the design these dedicated parks.
Question: What do recent parkour parks look like?
Components
Most purpose-built parkour parks and gyms are composed of geometric forms and structures of different shape, size, and height. These components have different adjacent, density, distance. Components are designed in consideration of the various movement typologies–running, jumping, swinging, climbing, crawling, balancing, etc
Materiality
Materials are as variable as any other type of playground–wood, concrete, brick, stone, plastic, steel, and rubber–and are permanently fixed. Flooring is designed for reducing impact such as grass, loose rubber, poured rubber, sand, or wood chips. This leaves a lot of room for designers to get creative.
Location, Size, Budget
Parks spaces have been (1)components in larger master plans, (2) independent stand alone builds, and (3) temporary installations. Size can vary from micro interventions (such as a bench re-design) to large scale action parks for 50+ people. For this reason, budget on a project can range from $1000 – 100,000+
These PK Parks are well suited for the ‘left over’ spaces of cities — beneath bridges and overpasses, in-between buildings–with lighting, signage and open access.
Furthermore, these are year-round accessible, with parkour practice encouraging training in diverse environmental conditions.
Users
Users are inter-generational, with teens and adults the primary user groups. You can learn more about the types of users that could activate this space in this article.
The Parkour Park Paradox: Why Spend Money On Something That Can Be Done Anywhere?
This article is a part of the Public Parkour Park Roadmap Series by Caitlin Pontrella
Question: Parkour can be practiced in existing environments with found infrastructure. The development of parkour parks and facilities, therefore, appears to be a paradox. Why spend precious community resources on something that doesn’t require parks and courses?
Answer: With enough creativity, Parkour can be practiced anywhere. However, there are several significant challenges limiting free practice and community building. There also are specific spatial qualities that consistently attract practitioners, offering higher quality opportunities for play, exploration, and physical challenge.
A purpose-built parkour environment has several benefits:
Finally, that parkour can be practiced anywhere is also why we as community advocates must also pursue creating spaces that can serve broader interests than parkour alone. Parkour can be providing architects and planners with critical lessons about multi-functionality and mobility justice that can be integrated into all designs, not just designated park spaces.
An Anti-Racist American History Reading List
Are you struggling with understanding white privileged or reject that it benefits you? Do you not quite understand structural or institutional racism and its depths? Are you uncertain or afraid to talk about race but want to be an ally?
I understand how you are feeling: You were likely given 12+ years of deeply white washed American history education that conveniently left out how we went to great ends to oppress the black community over the late 1800s, throughout the 1900s, and 2000s. You might even find yourself saying you ‘dont see color’ and were raised to treat everyone the same–not recognizing still that you still are a part of a system where you benefit from your own color.
Of course you aren’t prepared to be an ally. Of course you struggle against accepting your white privilege. Of course you probably hold disbelief in the extent and pervasiveness of institutionalized racism in modern society.
However, it is your responsibility to be an educated and aware citizen. The reality is that if you are white, you are more privileged, you benefit from century old systems that oppress our black communities still, and if you truly believe in living in a equitable society you must learn to talk about race, help others confront their own racism, and embrace allyship.
So I present to you a short reading list that can help you learn the american history that has been conveniently been left out of your history classrooms and books, and can also give you tools to help you be a better ally and anti racist. While there are many many more books, I focused heavily on those that covered the 100+yrs of economic, political, and social oppression of the black community spearheaded by american government, police, and white communities POST slavery. These are history and sociology books, as well as first hand accounts that cover:
Your Anti Racist + American History Primer Reading List
These are in no particular order. If you don’t know where to start or want to talk about what you’re reading and feeling, please send me an email or a comment below. I offer judgement free space for conversation.
📗The Color of Money by Baradaran (history, financial oppression, black banking, etc)
How the American banking and financial institutions (which served as the foundation of American / generational wealth) undermined progress and devastated communities of color throughout the 20th century. Amazing read, historical and well documented. A little slow at times though.
📗The New Jim Crow by Alexander (history, police, incarceration)
The U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. This is an intentional redesign of methods of oppression in a post civil rights era.
📗White Fragility by Diangelo
Ever feel uncomfortable when confronted with talking about race or find yoursd saying you’re ‘colorblind’ and don’t think you benefit from racism?? You’re not alone. White fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. iAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively. Amazing books that recontextualizes your relationship with racism.
📗The Color of Law by Rothstein (urban planning, housing, policy)
interested in why our cities Are segregated or why black home ownership is drastically lower than white home ownership numbers? This book is about how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods.
📗The Warmth of Other Suns by Wilkersons (Social history)
History buffs! This book follows the stories of individuals during the Great Migration, forced to move from south to north in search of safety, community, and opportunity. Reveals through first hand accounts the extreme racist behaviors and laws upheld by southern and northern cities from post slavery into the 1980s. This was your grandparents And parents generations.
📗How To Be An Anti-Racist by kendi (Tools for communication and allyship+history)
Kendi helps us recognise that everyone is, at times, complicit in racism whether they realise it or not, and by describing with moving humility his own journey from racism to antiracism, he shows us how instead to be a force for good.
📗So You Want To Talk About Race by oluo (Tools for communication+history)
Starting with a definition of racism and then delving into topics such as intersectionality, police brutality, affirmative action, the school-to-prison pipeline, microaggressions, the model minority myth and several more, each chapter starts with a personal story illustrating the topic and then explores it more, giving you bullet points of ways to think about and respond to such behaviors.
Is this an end-all-be-all list? No. This is just a primer, a place to get started, to help you realize that you weren’t given all the information, that oppression is real and embedded in the very foundation of how America operates.
From Fired Up to Burning Out.
Over the last 10 years, I have seen so many passionate community leaders light up, explode with effort, and slowly but surely burn out. Having burned out hard once or twice, it is painfully obvious when I see someone now heading full speed for that same painful wall.
One thing that has helped me manage my energy and avoid burnout is knowing more about the Maslach Burnout Inventory. MBI identifies six areas that lead to burnout:
This gives me a framework for reflection, evaluation, action, as well as for self-care. By being able to identify the contributing factors to my exhaustion or approaching burnout, I can often take the necessary steps to implement meaningful change and recalibrate.
For leaders who are responsible for small communities or non-profit organizations, the burden of responsibility (workload) is at times extreme and often paired with feeling a lack of appreciation and acknowledgment (reward).
Make sure to set up a time to check in and evaluate!