The third annual Deem symposium, Designing for Dignity 03: A Convening of Possibilities, carries forth the thematic discourse of the prior programs with hybrid (in-person and online) programming dedicated to expansive perspectives on liberatory design thinking, grounded in the shared value of dignity. Through presentations, conversations, and a participatory activation, this gathering considers challenging and topical subjects through the intersecting lenses of design and social practice. As in the past, the program brings together deeply engaged, experimentally inclined, and intergenerational thinkers and doers across a range of lived experiences and expertise. Designing for Dignity 03: A Convening of Possibilities intends to stimulate connectivity and dialogue between its speakers and the audience to energize and underscore the potential within each person to help the design world around them.

Katherine Darmstadt is the founder of Latent, a Chicago-based architecture and urbanism firm focused on social and spatial justice. Latent’s work spans community centers, food access, micro-retail, and housing, often in deep partnership with local stakeholders. Darmstadt cofounded Design Trust Chicago and was recognized as an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York. Her work has been featured by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), The Architect’s Newspaper, and various institutions. She previously taught at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and Northwestern University.

Nadia Elokdah is an urbanist and design strategist dedicated to cultural equity in public systems. She is vice president and director of programs at Grantmakers in the Arts and formerly worked with New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs on CreateNYC and the city’s monuments commission. A trained architect, Elokdah is also an educator, published author, and advisor to multiple cultural coalitions. Her work bridges civic engagement, design justice, and intersectional advocacy.

Ghian Foreman is president and CEO of Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, which drives investment and community wealth on Chicago’s South Side. He also leads Washington Park Development Group and has overseen over $50 million in urban real estate projects. A civic leader and strategist, Foreman sits on several boards and formerly served as President of the Chicago Police Board. He is an adjunct assistant professor of strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Cate Fox is director of AmbitioUS at the Center for Cultural Innovation, a pooled fund supporting alternative economies and financial freedom for artists. Formerly with the MacArthur Foundation, she co-ed arts and justice initiatives and brings extensive experience in nonprofit consulting, strategy, and fundraising. Fox is a trained mediator, creative writer, and nonprofit strategist. She serves on the board of Mudlark Theater Company and is passionate about building artist-centered systems of support.

Theaster Gates is an artist whose work spans sculpture, space theory, performance, and social practice. Trained in urban planning and Japanese ceramics, his approach is influenced by Shintoism and Animism. Gates is known for transforming neglected spaces and reviving cultural histories through Black archives and materials. His exhibitions span institutions including the Serpentine Pavilion, New Museum, and Palais de Tokyo, among many others. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, Isamu Noguchi Award, and the Nasher Sculpture Prize.

Nu Goteh is a designer, strategist, and educator focused on designing conditions for affirming, beautiful lives. He is the founder of Room for Magic and cofounder of Deem Journal. His work spans design, culture, and community, with clients like Art for Justice Fund, Ford Foundation, and Headspace. A frequent speaker on liberatory design, Goteh draws from his Liberian heritage and passion for counterculture to reimagine futures where communities are central.

Andres L. Hernandez is a conceptual artist and educator whose practice explores spatial justice and cultural production within Black communities. His collaborative and solo work has been featured at the International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia, Venice; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis. As one half of the performance duo Two Halves, he creates soundscapes, scores, and video works. Hernandez is an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a recipient of awards from 3Arts and the Efroymson Family Fund.

Marz Lovejoy is an artist, cultural strategist, and community caretaker whose work bridges creative practice and social transformation. She is the founder of And Still We Ride, an organization and bike ride centering Black femmes in public space. A student midwife and birth justice advocate, Lovejoy also launched an afterschool program teaching biking as cultural practice. Formerly curator-at-large at Alvaro Barrington Studios, her work celebrates Black joy, wellness, and care as radical acts of design.

Radha Mistry leads the Americas foresight practice at global design firm Arup and teaches speculative design at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). With a background in architecture and narrative environments, she explores how emerging trends shape the future of design. Previously, she founded the foresight practice at Autodesk and has exhibited at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Mistry’s work is driven by a commitment to inclusive futures that center communities historically excluded from mainstream visions of possibility.

Duane Powell is a DJ, ethnomusicologist, and cultural historian rooted in Chicago’s house and soul music scenes. A longtime collaborator with the Rebuild Foundation and board member of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, Powell is known for Sunday Service, an activation blending gospel and house. He founded SOUNDROTATION in 1999 to elevate underground soul and has hosted lectures on Black music history at institutions across the United States. Powell continues to move rooms and spark connection through sound.

Edra Soto is a Puerto Rican-born, Chicago-based artist, educator, and codirector of The Franklin. Her work explores diasporic identity, colonial legacies, and social inequities. Soto has exhibited at institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and Public Art Fund, New York. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and 3Arts Next Level Award. Her work is held in collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sruti Suryanarayanan is an artist organizer with Art.coop, focused on building solidarity economies through arts and culture. Based in Brooklyn, they mentor at NEW INC and have organized with Cultural Solidarity Fund, Interference Archive, and SAALT. Their work builds systems that resist inequity and amplify collective liberation. Suryanarayanan is currently pursuing a master's in genocide studies at The City University of New York and is also a weaver and pickler committed to joyful resistance.

Mabel O. Wilson is the Nancy and George E. Rupp Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and cocurator of The Museum of Modern Art exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America. Through her firm Studio&, she helped design the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia. Her scholarship and exhibitions have appeared at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), Art Institute of Chicago, and International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. Wilson is the author of Begin with the Past (Smithsonian Books, 2016) and Negro Building (University of California Press, 2012), and coeditor of Race and Modern Architecture (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020).

Deem is a print journal and online platform focused on design as social practice. Founded in 2019 by three Black creatives—Nu Goteh (a multi-disciplinary designer and cofounder of strategy and design studio Room for Magic), Alice Grandoit (a cultural researcher, nonprofit developer and cofounder of Room for Magic), and Marquise Stillwell (the founder of Openbox, a New York City-based design studio and consultancy). Deem explores human-centric design frameworks independent of exclusive institutions and industry categories; asks what design can do for communities by creating conversations that are transdisciplinary and intergenerational; and seeks to uncover meaningful narratives, connections, and patterns that might help us better understand our histories and imagine our futures.