Roots of Division and the Struggle for Solidarity in Essex County
led by Dr. Mia White, Dr. Mindy Fullilove and Molly Rose Kaufman

Mondays, July 27, August 3, and August 10 from 6:30pm-8pm at The HUUB, 35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, and a neighborhood walk Saturday, August 8, 10am-noon. Meet at HUUB.

Short Description

Centuries of structural dis/investment in Essex County has multiplied division and inequality in the socio-physical environment. Years of municipal neglect and infrastructure carve-ups have threatened to naturalize our differences. As a result, our communities need opportunities to remember our shared histories as one important step towards healing and reconnection. In this interactive workshop we will review policies that shaped our current environment and identify the many cultural and community assets in our region. We will ground in restoration urbanism: understanding urban fracture and the methodology of reweaving.

Longer description

This summer the University of Orange, a people’s free school of restoration urbanism in Orange, NJ, is offering a special workshop entitled “Roots of Division and the Struggle for Solidarity in Essex County.” UofO has an 18-year track record of offering courses that respond to immediate needs, offer an ecological perspective, and share necessary skills. This series is designed to support people to organize across diverse municipalities in Essex County. To accomplish this, the course will offer an ecological perspective on both the forces that shaped Essex County and the place-based organizing that can create solidarity. 

Essex County, New Jersey has been historically segregated by race and by class with decades of policies and uneven investment patterns exacerbating division and inequality. As a result, there is a lack of collaboration across our cities and towns as well as a lack of understanding that what happens in one place affects us all. Essex County has a sweeping range of income levels and lifestyles, from Newark to Short Hills, and is home to people from around the world.  The current political climate has created new opportunities for people to come together across historic divisions in unprecedented ways. Many are organizing to protect the rights of immigrants and many groups are encountering each other for the first time. These collaborations have the potential to create long-lasting change. However, effective collaborations and coalitions take gargantuan effort and early relationships can be fragile. 

We decided to develop this course for three reasons. First, our organization has been connecting with many groups in our region in response to the intersecting crises of this moment. Second, we are based at the HUUB Community Campus, a central space for events, popular education and community meetings. We see a cross-section of organizing efforts in this moment, as well as a cross-section of the crises. Third, Orange, NJ is ideally situated for this work within Essex County as the gateway between the cities and suburbs. As Janetza, a musician from Newark said at our recent music festival referring to Samad Savage, a rapper from Montclair, “It makes sense that we come together in Orange.” 

Our workshop will review policies that shaped our current environment including redlining, highway development, deindustrialization, mass incarceration, and transit-oriented development. We will then identify the many cultural and community assets and highlight the treasures in our communities. Our course has layered learning objectives. The first is to share a grounding in restoration urbanism: understanding urban fracture and the methodology of reweaving. The second is to support effective collaboration amongst organizing groups in our region using the principles of Collective Recovery. This course will be led by Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Dr. Mia White and Molly Rose Kaufman, three urbanists based in Essex County.