Location:Cleveland
Associate with LYG STUDIO

Ecology / Justice / Reconnection

“To be seen, to live with dignity and to be connected.”
– Alicia Graza, American civil rights activist and co-founder of the international Black Lives Matter movement

Kingsbury Run, an abandoned landfill in the heart of the Kinsman neighborhood in Southeast Cleveland, has long been neglected and labeled as a brownfield site. Despite its current appearance, it was once an ecologically rich watershed. Presently, this land is perceived as an eyesore due to it’s embedded history of precariousness, segregation, and racism. This negligence has created opportunities for nature to take over. Wildlife and flora has repopulated the land, including invasive plant species. It gives the sense of wilderness within an urban setting. Laces, Ties and Knots proposes to establish a new relationship between the people in the Kinsman neighborhood not only with nature, but also with the entire city. The project envisions a process which restores the disconnected communities as the result of environmental racism and creates a comprehensive social, cultural, and ecological unity, through revitalizing this forgotten site.