Photospiration: Find Your Cool In Durham | The Black Urbanist
What is cool? There’s a new book about that, but it’s focused primarly on African-Americans. What about everyone else? What makes something cool? Why are people coming back downtown? This sign on the back of a building in Durham invites people to come to their main street and find it.
I just look at the buildings and think about how cool the mural itself is. Every time someone comes to the Durham Performing Arts Center, The American Tobbaco Complex, the Durham County Courthouse or Beyu Cafe they see this banner.
So I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to come back to this sign, but I know I’ll be cool nonetheless.
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The Black Urbanist is written by me, Kristen E. Jeffers. I hold a Master of Public Affairs focused on community and economic development from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, which I just finished in May of 2012. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in communication with a concentration in public relations from North Carolina State University in 2007. My main gig is being the Public Affairs Officer for the North Carolina Humanities Council, which I also started in May of 2012. I released my first e-book, “Killing the Civic Inferiority Complex” in May of 2012. In May of 2011 I presented at my first CNU NextGen on Cultural Urbanism. At the 2012 CNU, I debuted the concept of the Civic Inferiority Complex. Also in 2012, I spoke at the UNC Global American South conference on the reverse migration of African Americans. I am a featured contributor to “The Atlantic Cities” and “Sustainable Cities Collective.” I have also contributed articles to “Grist”, “Next City”, “Better! Towns and Cities”, and “Urban Escapee.”
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