Sarah Gelbard

Join us on Friday, February 26 when Sarah Gelbard will speak on the theme Divergent, and more specifically, Divergent Cities.

Cities are places where people converge.

In the streets, in parks, in cafes, in workplaces, in schools, in arts and entertainment venues (at least before covid). This cosmopolitan ideal of “coming together” contributes to a city's vibrancy and also its democratic potential.

But this ideal risks erasing difference for sameness. For what is “normal.” The many crises our cities face will not be resolved with more of the same. Maybe it's time to make space for divergent cities, divergent stories, and divergent plans.

Sarah Gelbard is part anarchitect, punk planner, and a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning at McGill University. Her research looks at community placemaking and place-based storytelling. [She studies conflicts between mainstream planning and the marginalized alternative urban groups who diverge from the normative public interests that shape city plans.*] Sarah is known for her Brutalist architecture walking tours, is the Ottawa editor of Spacing Magazine, and a former regular contributor to Centretown Buzz. Sarah is also the lead singer, songwriter, and bass player in the local Ottawa punk band Bad Missionary.