Then the hand seeks other hands to help,
A community of hands to help-
Thus the dream becomes not one man’s dream alone,
But a community dream.
Not my dream alone, but our dream.
Not my world alone,
But your world and my world,
Belonging to all the hands who build.
Langston Hughes, “Freedom’s Plow” (1943)
An excerpt from “Freedom’s Plow” is inscribed on the Langston Hughes Community Library in Flushing. On 10.04.13, AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, opened the J. Max Bond Lecture by reading from the poem, saying that it exemplified Bond’s belief in the need for social justice in the building, design, and workings of the city – and the Hughes Library was one of the last projects Bond worked on. Bell named Bond not only as a former teacher, but a mentor and major influence on Bell’s career. The lecture was a collaboration between the newly reinstated AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee, the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NYCBOA/NOMA), and the J. Max Bond Center for the Just City (JMBC), carrying on Bond’s commitment to inclusion and justice in the built environment. Continue reading “Building a Just City”