What's Happening Now?

Newark, NJ (Alternative Futures)

Reclaiming Our Land from the Flows of Global Capitalism

Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood is overwhelmed from managing the NYC region’s consumption and waste habits. © Photomuse/Kristin Reimer.

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  1. Newark, NJ (Alternative Futures)

The Problem

Ironbound is home to a legacy of exploitation, beginning with the violent removal of the Lenape people and the marginalization of communities of color and poor people, followed by successive waves of industrialization and environmental destruction, to the creation of sacrifice port and logistical zones supporting the region’s consumption and waste habits.

The Roots

In the 1920s, the Port Authority began a project of infill industrialization in the Ironbound. Former marshlands gave rise to the airport, seaport, garbage dumps and industrial base of the region. This concentration of pollution is the product of racism, settler colonialism, and the failure of democratic systems.

The Solutions

ICC is committed to intersectional, frontline-led, organizing and resistance strategies that hold the promise of well-being, liberation, and self-determination. ICC’s approach to environmental justice is focused on a Just Transition to a regenerative economy grounded in the Jemez Principles.

ICC’s proposed expansion of Downbottom Farm next to a former brewery for community education and food prep. Courtesy of Corey Andrus, Erin Abraham, Brian McGrath, Peter Robinson, ICC.
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Down Bottom Farms is ICC’s hub for community cultural activities, job training, markets and farming. Courtesy of Atacan Kutlu, Jong Hee Jung, Becky Cho, Brian McGrath, Peter Robinson, ICC.
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Ironbound community members demonstrate against the incineration of NYC’s trash in the neighborhood. Courtesy of Atacan Kutlu, Jong Hee Jung, Becky Cho, Brian McGrath, Peter Robinson, ICC.
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A “scent library” and immigration museum at the railroad crossing site that connected Ellis Island to “all points west.” Courtesy of Vaishnavi Reddy, Brian McGrath, Peter Robinson, ICC.
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ICC imagines flood risk sites as sites of ecological restoration as part of New Jersey’s Blue Acres program. Courtesy of Ivee Barton, Alexander Guerra, Erin Abraham, Corey Andrus, Fabienne Hierzer, Brian McGrath, Peter Robinson, ICC.
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Our Point of View

Two of our graduate courses partnered with the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) who prioritized the environmental justice issues we addressed. Being in New York City, the main beneficiary of Newark’s waste and global goods infrastructure, we were mindful of the interlinked scales across physical, discursive, and imagined spaces. Students considered how they are complicit in the global flows of capital that create injustice in the Ironbound and how they can fight alongside groups like ICC for alternative futures.

The New School

ICC’s mission is to engage and empower individuals, families, and groups to work together to create a just, vibrant, sustainable community. ICC is a community-based non-profit that has been a voice for environmental justice for 50 years in Newark, NJ. This project reflects a shared commitment to the Jemez Principles of letting the most impacted speak for themselves; working in solidarity and mutuality; and being committed to self-transformation and bottom-up work. This approach infuses the project to tell a story of past, present, and future articulations of all that is possible when frontline communities lead the way.

Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC)

Contributors

University Partners

The New School

Faculty Project Directors
Ana Baptista
Brian McGrath
Peter Robinson

Students
Genesis Abreu
John Corey Andrus
Abigail R. Barrett
Ivee Barton
Becky Cho
Charles S. Cochran
Emma Costello
Nyleen N. Euton
Magdalen A. Folkman
Sarah P. Fried
Jocelyn Germany
Reynold Graham
Alexander Guerra
Andrew Harvey
Fabienne Hierzer
Autumh Hill
Andrew Harvey
Sungwhan Jean
Grace Jeong
Jong Hee Jung
Naser Kalhori
Atacan Kutlu
Jonathan Lampson
Laura A. Langner
Ann Le
Vivian Lee
Rania Manganaro
Meredith Moore
Sruthi Pawels
Benjamin Quint-Glick
Dawa Y. Sherpa
Christian Smoke
Andrew J. Stark
Christian Tandazo
Vaishnavi Reddy Tangella
Andrea Torres
Nikole A. Wieneke
Carmela Wilkins
Regina Ynestrillas Vega
Anna R. Yulsman

Community Partners

Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC)

Drew Curtis
Maria Lopez-Nuñez
Melissa Miles
Emily Turonis
Nancy Zak