232SQUAREMILES

Land and the structures we build upon it house our experiences, memories, and voices. Tension and segregation between people limits access to collective histories, narrowing our vernacular and understanding of one another. Finding ways to mindfully preserve cultural diversity in New York City is the key to building a global city that retains and presents the rich lives of its citizens to future inhabitants.

Since 2012, Jennifer Maravillas has been walking all over New York City collecting paper from each block to create five maps for each of the city’s boroughs. The Brooklyn map, 71 Square Miles, was completed in February of 2015 and was displayed in the Mapping Brooklyn exhibit at BRIC Arts Media House.

The maps will show cultures throughout the city in the media that each create- items such as shopping lists, phone cards, children’s school work, small business flyers, and love notes.

Jennifer’s goals in these decade-long works are:

-to contribute to the preservation of diversity in New York City

-to present trash as a medium through which we can study communications across cultures in order to evolve the definition of a global city

-to explore the land we share that shapes our memories, our experiences and voices through the structures we leave to future generations

-to live a full life lead by a quest for knowledge, openness, and courage.