On Sunday, October 24, all of the Dr. Pop core blogger crew (except for Ryan, who is celebrating his post-nuptials) assembled at Hanbury Hall in London for a panel at the This Is Not a Gateway festival.

MC Gary introduced us all and then Andrea presented 100 years of L.A. corporatization and push-back — in only 10 minutes.

I presented two of my favorite inspirations for urban transformation –  namely the social engagement efforts of Antanas Mockus‘ 1990s mayoral administration in Bogota and Mel Chin’s current Fundred Dollar Bill Project.

And then Celine facilitated a brainstorm of London’s most vexing problems so that our participants could play with the material for a little while — not long enough — but to get a taste of what it means to open up urban discussions by injecting collective creativity into the process.

As though it were planned (and perhaps it was) all of us stayed on as audience- participants in the next workshop, which was a perfect case-in-point of artists who live in public housing and other public housing resident leaders combining their commitment, caring, and acumen to demand respect and housing as a human right.

The workshop, led by artist-activists Lasse Johansson and Andrea Luka Zimmerman and tenant leader Ruth Murray Tukara, also served as a launch for Estate, a book by Fugitive Images, that is “a dialogue between photography, archaeology of the recent past, autobiography and critical theory.”

And well it is.

And I am delighted that my copy is signed by my new friends, Andrea, Lasse, and Ruth.

For more insightful reading on urban issues, see Critical Cities 2, produced by This Is Not A Gateway, which launched with a great party on October 22 along with the Festival, and which contains a great article by our very own Andrea Gibbons.

What Inspires Urban Transformation?

Andrea Gibbons, Celine Kuklowsky, Gary Phillips, & Gilda Haas lead a workshop about inspiring examples of what it takes to mobilize creativity –– and then apply the results to some of London’s toughest problems.

TINAG Festival

Sunday, October 24
1:30-3:30
Hanbury Hall
22 Hanbury Street
London E1
FREE

When Rebecca “Commie Girl” Schoenkopf saw the blurb for the Dr. Pop July event in Chicago where we showed the documentary Bogotá Change, she immediately facebooked me with a request for an L.A. event.

“Sure,” I said.  ”If you help.”

And she did. Great commie girls think alike.

She and her partner Paul had just seen the film, and once Rebecca got her jaw off her lap, she evangelized about it on the Fourstory website, (where she and comrade-husband- Gary-Phillips blog together) with a particular focus on recent Colombian Green Party presidential candidate and former Bogoá mayor, Antanas Mockus.  Rebecca only refers to the man as MOCKUS! – all caps, exclamation point, all the time.

So….yesterday afternoon Rebecca, Gary and I were joined by an eclectic group of interesting smart people (many of whom I met for the first time) who gathered to see the film at Busby’s East in my neighborhood (formerly the Conga Room, and before that, the Jack LaLanne fitness club) which proved to be a surprisingly great venue for our purposes.

We had some snacks (Busby’s makes a mean guacamole), I did a little intro on our “fun theory” and showed the Piano Stairs video to the uninitiated.  Then we watched the documentary, followed by a really thoughtful discussion.  Here’s a little taste of that.

Some people had been to Bogotá recently and were impressed by the character of the city.  They told us a bit about their experience, and how they appreciated learning the story behind the story.  Aaron was one of those, and he did a shoutout for CiccLAvia’s 10/10/10 debut, an L.A. prototype inspired by Bogotá’s bike and pedestrian-only rule for miles and miles of streets on Sundays.  Lynda, who spent time in Bogotá in the 80s, before the period covered by the film (1990s), suggested that the city was so difficult and beaten down at that time, that middle class and poor people alike were ready and hungry and aligned for change.  Earl got us talking about the distinction between a “thinker” mayor and a “doer” mayor brought up by characters in the film. Ginny expressed her conflicted response to an exciting vision of possibilities for change that was nevertheless packaged in what she found to be an unacceptable top-down process.

It is always such a pleasure to meet some of you in person.  We enjoy it so much, and learn even more.  A big thank you to those who came out.

Stay tuned for information about our next Dr. Pop event (this time in London) ––  a Dr. Pop panel at This Is Not A Gateway ‘s third annual festival sometime between October 22-24.

Free Film Screening and Discussion

Bogotá Change

EVENT DETAILS
DAY:  Sunday, September 12
Film: 4 PM
Discussion: 5 PM
Place: Busby’s East
5364 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036

street parking

What does fun have to do with social change?

How can mimes, super-hero costumes, and artistic interventions help to transform a city?

Join Dr. Pop for a lively screening of Bogotá Change, a documentary that tells the story of how Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa reshaped an entire city through creativity and an incredible commitment to being human.

After the movie we will share ideas on what this has to do with L.A. and the creative work we are already doing.

Bring your best plots, schemes and dreams.

Dr. Pop’s first event! In Chicago, a truly great city.

About 75 really diverse (and smart) people showed up at Decima Musa (a great old-school place in Pilsen) to see the inspiring documentary Bogotá Change and talk about the “fun theory” that:

1. takes a real thorny problem

2. applies collective creativity

3. makes problem-solving fun

Bogotá Change is about how two very different progressive mayors, Antanas Mockus, who recently pushed the presidential election into a run-off, and Enrique Peñalosa, who has become an international planners’ planner; and how they changed the social and physical dynamics of a city that, as a result of their intense commitment and effort, evolved from one of the more violent and dysfunctional places on the planet, to one that is held up as a model by urban planners around the world.

All in about a decade. A very short time in the metrics of change.

With respect to the anything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong rule of first events — the subtitles didn’t work! Tested and retested, but when it was showtime — no subtitles.

But our audience hung in there and were rewarded with a Q & A session with our favorite Colombian planners, Catalina Ortiz and Diego Silva (check out the Mathematician Mayors interview that Ryan did with those two before the film was released) and a great discussion with each other.

Speaking of Ryan….Ryan MC’d and co-hosted the event with the thoughtful crew from The Public Square, a community forum program of the Illinois Humanities Council.

We ended with the hilarious music video from Iceland’s BEST party (which recently won 6 seats on the Reykjavik City Council).

Planning a similar event (with functioning subtitles) for L.A. soon.