We The People

The ideas behind The Practice of Democracy: We Hold These Truths are inspired by April De Simone’s lived experiences. Her personal and professional journey begins with growing up in a Bronx, New York, neighborhood steeped in the generational consequences of policies and practices like Redlining, Urban Renewal, and the infamous war on drugs. Her work today connects a deeper psychological and physical understanding of how such policies, practices, and investments rooted in the undemocratic idea that some people are less worthy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness than others, which is a significant threat to the future of democracy. 

Each iteration of The Practice of Democracy: We Hold These Truths invites a curatorial team of diverse thinkers within the space of equity and justice to contribute to site-specific installations. Together, this work investigates how the practice of democracy shows up within our built environment- the places we curate and the spaces we engage. We ask a larger societal question: “What is our collective agency as stewards of democracy to heal and to manifest these values of liberty, equity, and justice in our daily experiences and the outputs we plan, decide, and design in the built environment.