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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: New Village Publicity
pr@newvillagepress.net
510-420-1361

Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space

cover of Beyond Zuccotti Park Book

Edited by Ron Shiffman, Rick Bell, Lance Jay Brown, and Lynne Elizabeth with Anastassia Fisyak and Anusha Venkataraman
Foreword by Michael Kimmelman

Publisher: New Village Press
ISBN: 978-1-61332-009-9 (epub: 978-1-61332-011-2)
Distributor: Consortium
Pages: 432
Binding: Library-quality paperback
Trim: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 145 b/w photographs & illustrations
Pub Date: October 12, 2012
Special: Full Index
Price: $19.95

New Book Takes Hard Look at Public Space Freedoms in the Wake of Occupy

New York, NY – September 4, 2012 – Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space launches September 10 at the Center for Architecture, New York. This illustrated book examines the importance of public space as a community forum for citizen expression. Actions against Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have spotlighted US Constitutional rights to freedom of assembly. The book puts issues of democracy and civic engagement into the center of built environment dialogue by addressing issues such as where and how people can congregate publicly today, whose voices are heard, and the factors that limit the participation of people of color. It also gives fresh attention to the planning, design, and programming of public space.

Beyond Zuccotti Park was conceived in response to the forced clearance of Occupy activities from public plazas throughout the country. Its distinguished editors are advocates of participatory civic process: Ron Shiffman, FAICP, Hon. AIA, Director Emeritus, Pratt Center for Community Development and Professor, Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment; Rick Bell, Executive Director, American Institute of Architects, New York; Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, School of Architecture, City College of New York, CUNY; Lynne Elizabeth, Director, New Village Press; Anastassia Fisyak, Urban Planning Fellow, Pratt Center for Community Development; and Anusha Venkataraman, Assistant Director, El Puente Green Light District. Beyond Zuccotti Park’s foreword was penned by Michael Kimmelman, chief architecture critic of the New York Times and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

The AIANY Center for Architecture will hold multiple events in celebration of Beyond Zuccotti Park:

• Exhibition – September 10 thru 22 – Beyond Zuccotti Park: Exhibit

Book Launch – September 10 – presenters: Peter Marcuse, professor emeritus of urban planning at Columbia University; Nikki Stern, political, social, and cultural commentator; Sadra Shahab, urban planner and civil rights advocate.

• Free Public Symposium – September 16 – Freedom of Assembly: Public Space Today, Part 3

Contributing Authors:

Roland V. Anglin, Caron Atlas, Thomas Balsley, Terri Baltimore, Shirin Barghi, Rick Bell, Marshall Berman, Julian Brash, Wendy E. Brawer, Paul Broches, Carlton Brown, Lance Jay Brown, David Burney, Brennan S. Cavanaugh, Susan Chin, Alexander Cooper, Arthur Eisenberg, Lynne Elizabeth, Karen A. Franck, Michael Freedman-Schnapp, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Gan Golan, Jeffrey Hou, Te-Sheng Huang, Lisa Keller, Brad Lander, Peter Marcuse, Jonathan Marvel, Signe Nielsen, Michael Pyatok, Michael Rios, Jonathan Rose, Janette Sadik-Khan, Saskia Sassen, Paula Z. Segal, Sadra Shahab, Benjamin Shepard, Gregory Smithsimon, Michael Sorkin, Nikki Stern, and Maya Wiley.

Notable Contributing Authors:

Peter Marcuse, professor emeritus of urban planning at Columbia University; coauthor of Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City, with Neil Brenner and Margit Mayer (November, 2011); and author of Searching for the Just City (July, 2011).

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, professor of clinical sociomedical sciences and clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. Previous books include House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place (2002) and Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It (2004).

Michael Sorkin, distinguished professor of architecture and director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design, City College of New York. His books include Variations on a Theme Park (1992), The Next Jerusalem (2002), After the World Trade Center (2002), and Against the Wall (2005).

Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd professor of sociology at Columbia University and visiting professor at the London School of Economics. Publications include The Mobility of Labor and Capital (1988), The Global City (1991), and Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblage (2006).

Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. Awarded the 2011 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism by the Rockefeller Foundation for her success in increasing New Yorkers’ access to open public spaces.

Roland V. Anglin, director of Rutgers University’s Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies. Author of Promoting Sustainable Local and Community Economic Development (2010) and coeditor of Resilience and Opportunity (2011) and Katrina’s Imprint: Race and Vulnerability in America (2010).

Susan Chin, executive director of the Design Trust for Public Space. Previously served as the assistant commissioner of Capital Projects at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs for twenty-three years. Vice president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a former president of the AIA New York Chapter.

Arthur Eisenberg, currently legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and has been involved in more than twenty cases presented to the US Supreme Court.

Gan Golan, activist artist and coauthor/illustrator of the New York Times bestselling book Goodnight Bush.

Advance Praise for Beyond Zuccotti Park:

Beyond Zuccotti Park is an insightful and relevant book that challenges us to think differently about the role of public space for civic engagement. If you believe in the First Amendment’s right to freedom of assembly, then this is the book to read.”
Mitchell Silver, AICP, President, American Planning Association

“What was it about Zuccotti Park, and other public spaces around the world, that helps explain its success? And how can we preserve and strengthen such spaces as places of protest? This book, like Zuccotti itself, is a site of vigorous conversation, hard thinking, and bold proposals on such issues.”
Mike Wallace, coauthor of Pulitzer Prize-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

“A free and open public discussion is well understood to be fundamental to a democracy. Beyond Zuccotti Park confirms how important accessible open space is to that public discussion and illuminates the policy issues raised by the Occupy Wall Street movement. This diverse collection of voices raises important questions about how to define a genuine public space.”
Roberta Brandes Gratz, author of The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs