Gentrification, Zero Waste, and Inclusion: Highlights from Spring 2018 Events
Creative Minds Creating Change
The Nth Degree is a curated series of events featuring thinkers, visionaries, and creators who bring about positive change in the world — and redefine the cutting edge. The series continues The New School’s century-long tradition of forward thinking by spotlighting lectures, performances, panels, and other public programs that galvanize curious minds.
View the highlights from our spring events below.
March 30, 2018: Made in Sri Lanka: Humanizing the Fashion Supply Chain, a panel conversation on fashion’s potential to be a force of social good, which included speakers from Levi Strauss & Co., Parsons School of Design, and Remake, a conscious fashion movement dedicated to labor justice in the fashion industry. The discussion follows the premiere of Made in Sri Lanka, a short film that tracks several Parsons students as they embark on an investigative journey into global clothing production. They travel to factories abroad, meeting the women who make our clothing and exploring mass production.
April 10, 2018: Brooklyn: A Decade of Design and Change brought together speakers from product design, fashion, and community development to trace the roots of the designer/manufacturer movement in Brooklyn and explore its evolution and explosive growth from 2010 to 2018. Individual presentations were followed by a panel discussion.
April 10, 2018: Mannes American Composers Ensemble present ed RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi, a performance bringing together live music and film to depict a journey of devotion honoring the goddess Radha. Also on the program were David Fulmer’s Sky’s Acetyleneand Bruno Mantovani’s Streets. The evening concluded with a conversation with RADHE RADHE’s composer, Vijay Iyer; conductor David Fulmer; and actor Anna George.
April 20, 2018: Stepping Outside the Frame: Meet The New Generation of Image Makers: Kim Jenkins, part-time lecturer at Parsons School of Design, moderated a panel discussion with change makers in fashion and media: Myles Loftin, Photographer, Parsons’ BFA Photography ’20 Joshua Kissi,Creative Director and Co-founder, TONL Philip Picardi, Digital Editorial Director,Teen Vogue and them Renell Medrano, Photographer, Parsons’ BFA Photography ’14 Peter Ash Lee, Photographer, Creative Director, Corduroy Jamilla Okubo, Illustrator, Parsons’ BFA Integrated Design ’16 The discussion centered on how photographers and image-makers are creating a career pathway that corrects mis-representation and reshapes the way we see ourselves in fashion and the media.
May 9, 2018: Design, Justice & Zero Waste: Exploring Pathways to the Circular Economy, hosted by The Tishman Environment and Design Center and GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), was a global audience of innovative and creative environmentally minded collaborators, including practitioners, researchers, advocates, and activists, for a solution-focused discussion. Together the group worked to create a Circular Economy Action Plan and Research Collaborative for long-term partnerships and information sharing.
May 18, 2018: Transform the World through Strategic Design explored methods for leading transformation through strategic design while engaging with opportunities and issues connected to shifts in the present-day social, industrial, and economic landscapes. Graduates of Parsons’ Global Executive MS in Strategic Design and Management (GEMS) program discussed a broad range of topics — workplace innovation, legal practice, sustainable fashion, climate change, work health balance, culture, and interior design — and how these phenomena can foster social betterment in contemporary business settings. The event was moderated by Melissa Rancourt, academic director of Parsons’ Global Executive MS in Strategic Design and Management program.
