PROVIDENCE – Registration is open for the 2017 Providence Symposium, which will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 21. The focus this year is “Sites and Stories: Mapping a Preservation Ecosystem,” and will include several discussions of both the economics and ethics of preservation.
The symposium is free and open to the public but advance registration is required. For registration information, visit www.providencesymposium.com.
The opening event is called “Sites and Stories of Urban Displacement and its Aftermath,” which involves two film screenings followed by a question-and-answer period. The films are “Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?: A Cape Verdean American Story” (2006) and “The Rebirth of the Nation: The Story of Urban Renewal” (1963). The informal Q-and-A to follow is with Claire Andrade-Watkins, professor of film and Africana studies at Emerson College in Boston.
The screenings begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Cable Car Cinema, 204 S. Main St., Providence.
The remainder of the symposium is held from 8:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, at First Unitarian Church of Providence, 1 Benevolent St.
The discussions and presentations include:
“Who Owns Heritage?” A keynote address by Randall Mason, chairman of the graduate program in historic preservation and an associate professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Sites and Stories: A Consideration of Urban Displacement and its Aftermath.” A conversation with Andrade-Watkins, moderated by Christina Bevilacqua.
“The Death and Life of American Planning: Building our Future.” A roundtable with historians and planners on the post-urban renewal evolution of the planning field. Featuring Elihu Rubin, Yale School of Architecture associate professor, and Allen Penniman, principal planner for the city of Providence. Moderated by Marisa Brown from the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University.
And from 2:30 to 4 p.m., a walking tour of the Fox Point redevelopment area with Andrade-Watkins and John McNiff, National Park Service ranger, Roger Williams National Memorial.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at MacDonald@PBN.com. Follow on Twitter at MaryF_MacDonald.
