Play as a Precursor to Participation, with Reanne Estrada and Benjamin Stokes

Most of us probably aren’t making an effort to hang out in public spaces lately, much less seeing them as playful – quite the opposite! But with a hopeful eye to the future, this week we’re joined by artist Reanne Estrada, Creative Director of Public Matters, a Los Angeles-based creative studio for civic engagement, and Benjamin Stokes, Assistant Professor at American University and Director of The Playful City Lab, to discuss the potential for – and benefits of – play in our public spaces. Reanne and Benjamin share thoughts on how we can use what we’ve experienced during this pandemic to reclaim and define new priorities for our shared public spaces. They consider ways we can expand equity in terms of access to public space and to opportunities for play in everyday life. They each identify ways communities can build the collective sense of power needed to make changes. We think about the affordances of play as a tactic for driving civic engagement, and acknowledge the ways play is already baked into our communities and the ways it has the potential to drive equity, even as it is not always available equitably.

Visit the episode page for the full transcript of this conversation!

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Writer, Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal winner Isabel Wilkerson

Washington, DC:
Push for statehood

Black Lives Matter Plaza (and tensions between DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and President Trump)
Push to Diversify Public Monuments
A Right to the City DC exhibition highlighting the successes of civic activism
Some of the history of DC’s segregated baseball leagues

Some of Benjamin’s earlier research on online volunteering

Public Matters projects in LA:
University Park Slow Jams - traffic safety & mobility justice
Market Makeovers - fruits & veggies parade costumes, east LA veggie zombies
The Chicharrón Chronicles - Historic Filipinotown walking tours focusing on food, language and labor, with Gustavo Arellano

Community-based games for civic engagement:
Commons - NYC - winner, Real-World Game for Change Challenge 2011
Macon Money - Macon, GA
The Participation Game - Helsinki, Finland

Photo: V-J Day in Times Square

Model Cities program in the US - role play for city officials - builds empathy for cause and effect systems

Eric Gordon - Meaningful Inefficiencies

Henry was referring to the tiles featuring kids’ artwork at Davis Square MBTA station

Reading up on historical town pageants

AOC's GOTV Twitch stream

For more thoughts on rituals, check out our episode with USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni

Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at [email protected].

Music:
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
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In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet  https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
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Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at [email protected].

Music:
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet  https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––