Deem Symposium: Panel Discussion on Equitable Community Design in Chicago

Otez Gary moderates a conversation on equitable community design in Chicago with Paola Aguirre Serrano, Maya Bird-Murphy, and Tonika Lewis Johnson.

Paola Aguirre Serrano is a native of the Mexico-US region, urban designer, and partner at the Chicago/San Antonio-based design and research practice BORDERLESS.

Maya Bird-Murphy is an architectural designer, educator, and the founder of Mobile Makers, an award-winning nonprofit organization bringing design and skill-building workshops to underrepresented communities.

Tonika Lewis Johnson is a photographer, social justice artist, and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood, as well as co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood.

Otez Gary is an artist and Community Engagement Manager at the MCA Chicago, where he creates a shared art ecosystem through partnership, collaboration, and using the museum’s platform and resources as an incubator for Chicago’s arts scene.

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Deem Journal’s inaugural Symposium is an in-person and online hybrid event bringing together designers, practitioners, and community members to form dialogues around emergent and liberatory directions within design.

Hosted in partnership with the MCA, the Symposium explores how design can draw on diverse perspectives to create more equitable and inclusive communities and futures through the following themes: Dignity, Pedagogy, Equity, and Place.