• Article

    New managing director guides The LAB Miami

    Published July 31, 2014 by

    Tamara Wendt photo by Catalina Ayubi. More than two months ago, Danny Lafuente and Wifredo Fernandez, co-founders of The LAB Miami, announced they were setting their sights on new projects and creating an opportunity for  someone else to carry on the day-to-day management of the vision they brought to life. While I’ve been supervising operations at The LAB Miami since late last year, I’m excited to build upon that work as the new managing director. I have been fortunate to be part of The LAB since the Cirque du Cowork, the launch party for the current location in 2013. Danny invited a maker space project I was involved with to base itself in one of The LAB’s offices.  I began to see the story unfold of brilliant hard-working founders, an impressive board, and the support of the forward-thinking Knight Foundation, all set against the backdrop of Wynwood, one of Miami’s most creative and progressive neighborhood.. It was clear that there was a demand for a place like The LAB, which hosted more than 25,000 people in its first 12 months. More than 160 members spanning 80 diverse, but commonly social-minded, organizations began to co-work and collaborate here. The ethos of openness, trust and sharing is palpable when you walk into The LAB. It is relaxing, invigorating, inspiring, and, as I hear visitors say almost every day, it “feels really good in here.”   In the next year we will continue to support open programs such as the Wynwood Maker Camp, the Maker Educational Initiative, Code for Miami and a number of new community initiatives and social events started by members and non-members alike—and many supported by Knight. Groups such as Code Fever, Colony 1 Sustainability Hub, LadyFest and the Overtown Youth Center will all have a hand in shaping our approach to community building.
  • Article

    Philly residents prepare for battle in Shakespeare in the park

    Published July 30, 2014 by

    Shakespeare's Henry IV in West Philadelphia's Clark Park. Credit: Brian Siano on YouTube. When a staging of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” opens tonight in Philadelphia, city native Brian Anthony Wilson, a black actor perhaps best known for being Detective Vernon Holley in the award-winning “The Wire” television series, will take the stage as king. “I’m here because I am an actor,” Wilson said. “And I’m selfishly doing this. Playing a king is a challenge but the bigger thing, the key thing, is that I’m showing kids of color and people of color more of what we can do and see.” That’s an important message for West Philadelphia, the neighborhood where the adaptation kicks off a four-night run in Clark Park, a block off the 43rd Street trolley stop on Baltimore Avenue. Three-quarters of the neighborhood’s residents are black—a demographic not usually counted among Shakespeare fans—and some of them will help stage a battle scene in the production.
  • Article

    One Voice OUT in Schools!

    Published July 30, 2014 by

    By Jane Ramseyer Miller, One Voice Mixed Chorus One of the most important impacts of One Voice’s Out In Our Schools program this year was giving youth a chance to interact, rehearse, sing and perform with LGBT and allied adults. Music is a powerful tool to dispel stereotypes and erase...
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    Delegation from Italy visits Miami for lessons in community building

    Published July 29, 2014 by

    Photo: Italian delegates are hosted by the Miami Downtown Development Authority for a roundtable discussion on community development. Left to right: Cristina Tajani, Mariachiara Fornasari, Alessandro Cattaneo, Simona Molisso and Gerardo Ausiello. Credit: Carolina Wilson. Miami’s growth in urban entrepreneurship has increasingly attracted the attention of leaders from other countries, and last week a delegation from Italy visited South Florida to learn more about developments in the region’s business sector. Miami Program Director Matt Haggman. The U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program invited four government officials and a journalist to the area. They experienced a short visit to Washington, D.C., but then traveled to Miami, where the Miami Council for International Visitors hosted them.
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    Dive into our precious coral at MIA

    Published July 29, 2014 by

    Installation of "Flower Animal" at MIA, North Terminal. As annoying air travel is these days, the MIA Galleries at Miami International have been doing a great job in alleviating the tension-filled experience. Throughout the various terminals and even at specific gates, the Division of Fine Arts...
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    Josh McManus, tapping into the innate ambition of Akron, Ohio

    Published July 29, 2014 by

    Josh McManus joined Knight Foundation this week as Akron program director, Below, Carol Coletta, vice president for community and national initiatives, interviews McManus about his extensive work with placemaking and other nonprofits, and his hopes for his work in Akron. Carol Coletta: You are from Chattanooga, Tenn.  You have a summer home in Maine. You have worked extensively in Detroit, another Knight city. What have you learned from each of those places? Josh McManus: Chattanooga taught me that individuals who give a damn and act accordingly make cities change. In the 1970s a small group of people from many backgrounds dug their heels in and refused to accept a fate of decline for their city. I’ve had the privilege to learn from them and that informs the work that I do every day. Maine keeps my eyes fresh to the work that I do. My heroes, ranging from Bucky Fuller to Thomas Edison to Frank Lloyd Wright, all understood that distance can help draw clarity and that communing with Mother Nature is a necessary balance to the nonstop energy of urbanity. Detroit has taught me how creative destruction can actually liberate systems within cities and spur unexpected answers to pressing problems.