Today’s episode is with landscape architect, designer, urbanist, and public artist Sara Zewde. Sara is the co-founder of Studio Zewde– a design firm practicing landscape architecture, urban design, and public art, as well as an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In this episode, she shares how design has been leveraged as a tool of oppression and how everyone must be involved in the process of thinking about the world they want to create. 
We explore the controversial origins of landscape architecture along with topics that range from Hurricane Katrina not only being a natural disaster but a political failure that ignited her curiosity about the land, architecture being built on the backs of Black women, and ultimately the bold moves we should be making now to engage with the environment. Sara’s story introduces you to the origins of architecture that have been omitted and challenge us to participate in the design of being. 


Things mentioned
https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/frederick-law-olmsted-sr (Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.) is the father of landscape architecture
https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/frederick-law-olmsted-jr (Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.) 
https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/seneca-village-site (Seneca Village existed before Central Park )
https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/liberatory-design-cards#:~:text=Liberatory%20Design%20is%20a%20process,and%20influenced%20by%20design%20work. (Liberatory Design) is a process and practice
https://www.africatownlandtrust.org/ (Africatown Community Land Trust) can be a model for us
https://studio-zewde.com/graffiti-pier (Graffiti Pier) by Studio Zewde


What to read
https://bookshop.org/books/sister-outsider-essays-and-speeches-9781799984474/9781580911863 (Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches )by Audre Lorde
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4177045 (An Aesthetic of Blackness: Strange and Oppositional) by bell hooks
https://bookshop.org/books/the-souls-of-black-folk-87d5ee39-cd42-4012-a6a5-a1870d60860c/9781640322677 (The Souls of Black Folk) by W. E. B. Du Bois 
https://bookshop.org/books/journeys-and-explorations-in-the-cotton-kingdom-a-traveller-s-observations-on-cotton-and-slavery-in-the-american-slave-states-based-upon-three-former/9788027334391 (Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States Based Upon Three Former) by Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. 


Who to follow
Find her on https://www.instagram.com/zewdiac/ (IG)
To learn more about her work, visit https://studio-zewde.com/ (Studio Zewde) and follow them on https://www.instagram.com/studio_zewde/ (IG)


This conversation was recorded on May 3rd, 2022. 


Host https://www.instagram.com/dario.studio/ (Dario Calmese) 
Production Assistant: https://www.instagram.com/holly_woodco/ (Coniqua Johnson )
Visual Art Direction and Designs: 
http://riverwildmen.com/ (River Wildmen), https://www.instagram.com/afrovisualism/ (AfroVisualism)
Original Music composed by http://www.dariocalmese.com/ (Dario Calmese) 
Visit us at https://www.blackimagination.com/oral-history (blackimagination.com )