A free experiential learning cluster, developed & presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
with DesignTO
"The Feminist City is an ongoing experiment in living differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world." — Leslie Kern
Throughout the fall/winter 2022 season, GoetheTO developed an experiential learning cluster—reading, listening, exchanging ideas with urbanists, designers, architects, planners, artists, philosophy students, citizens. Combining theory and practice, global impulses and visionary ideas, the creative team and diverse communities and audiences imagined and built a (model) feminist city in an open thinker & maker process.
READ
For yourself or with friends, read Kern’s book and other feminist materials and research at the Goethe-Institut, or borrow the book from your public library or get it from your independent bookstore.
THINK & TALK
Participate in a reading group facilitated by the Feminist City creative team with students, colleagues, friends, neighbours. Bring your questions, leave your thoughts, map your ideas on the Goethe Think Wall, a collaborative open-access visioning board – through social media, photos, stickie notes or whatever inspires you.
MAKE
What can a Feminist City actually look like? Build a (model) feminist city collaboratively in the Goethe event space. Get ready to get crafty & radical.
SHOW & SHARE
Share the dream of a feminist city. Meet Leslie Kern and guests to deepen the conversation, engage female city leaders and compare theory and practice.
Toronto-born Leslie Kern, PhD, is the author of three books about cities, including Gentrification Is Inevitable And Other Lies (2022) and Feminist City (2019). She is an associate professor of geography and environment and director of women’s and gender studies at Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB, Canada. Kern’s research has earned her a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award, a National Housing Studies Achievement Award; her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vox, Bloomberg CityLab, LitHub, and Refinery29.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Bianca Weeko Martin is a writer, artist and researcher. She studied architecture at the University of Waterloo and most recently held a position as curatorial assistant at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Alongside architectural internships in New York City, Melbourne, and Mexico City, Bianca lived in Berlin as an artist-in-residence at TAKT Berlin in 2017. She is the author of the book Architectural Guide Manila for Berlin-based DOM Publishers 2023.
Ruth Spitzer is a German-Canadian designer and educator at Toronto Metropolitan University Interior Design. Drawing on her education as a product and shoe designer, Ruth’s multi-disciplinary practice focuses on creating innovative experience concepts. She is one half of Dorkenwald & Spitzer, a creative partnership designing for a nomadic urban lifestyle with purpose and delight. Spitzer has a degree from Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, Germany, and is a Master’s student at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
Catharine Wang is a third-year student at TMU Interior Design. She enjoys exploring the city in the mostly-post-pandemic world.
Jutta Brendemühl is the Goethe-Institut Toronto’s Program Curator. Her interests lie in sharing the public space and visioning a bolder Toronto.
Part of the Goethe-Institut focus on Global Feminisms
