Francisca Benitez

Francisca Benitez is an artist born in Chile in 1974. Architect (University of Chile,1998), Master in Fine Arts (Hunter College CUNY, 2007).
Her videos, photographs and drawings are exhibited internationally, most recently at El Museo del Barrio in New York, Parc de la Villette in Paris and
Museu de Arte Contemporánea da USP in Sao Paulo. She has been involved with CUP since 2001 working on several educational projects and exhibitions.

Tanya Bhandari

Tanya is a communication designer from New Delhi, India who is trying to make and do good. She moved to New York in 2012 to study Design for Social Innovation and hasn’t looked back since. Currently, Tanya is a senior designer at the Office of Innovation at UNICEF. She loves to illustrate, fool around with analog photography, play the ukulele and lie around in water bodies. 

Katrin Bichler

is a multidisciplinary designer focusing on data, social and environmental justice, cats and Jake Gyllenhaal.

AJ Blandford

AJ Blandford is a former co-founding CUP board member. As a designer/builder she has worked together with artists including robbinschilds,
AL Steiner, Fritz Haeg, Shannon Ebner, Manfred Pernice, and Davide Balula. She is currently a doctoral student in the History program at
Rutgers University where she studies the cultural history of 19th century American arts and sciences.

Hanna Blankenship

Hanna Blankenship is CUP’s Summer 2021 intern. Hanna is originally from Vermont and studies Law and Marketing at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. She’s interested in helping marginalized communities navigate the systems that hope to keep them silenced by amplifying their voices and needs. Utilizing both of her areas of studies, Hanna aspires to be someone who makes meaningful change in the communities around her. In her free time she enjoys reading, growing her collection of houseplants, and thrifting. She is very excited to be learning from for CUP as an intern this summer!

Students from Block Party

A group of students in Big Brothers Big Sisters worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and CUP teaching artist Doug Paulson to find out how to make a change in public spaces.Those students were Brion Beaufort, Erick Cayo, Amy Ford, Marquise Mack, Aaron Modoo, Celina Muñoz, Macy Shields, Sharay Wade, and Jason Williams.

Elijah Bobo

Elijah Bobo was the 2019 CUP Fellow for Change in Design. He is from Flint, Michigan and is a recent graduate from Eastern Michigan University with a BFA in Graphic Design. With his time at Eastern he worked for many on-campus organizations such as the Center for Diversity and Community Involvement, the Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the School of Art and Design, organizations that use their platforms to promote inclusivity, research, and culture. Elijah wants to take what he has learned about critical thinking and creative problem solving to apply them to issues that are impacting the communities where he grew up, and where he has recently relocated, New York City.

Jonathan Bogarín

Jonathan Bogarín is an artist, filmmaker, and educator. He believes that art is a tool for understanding our world that can help us become more active, creative, and conscientious citizens. Jonathan is currently co-directing Invisible Murals, a PBS supported documentary about myths, murals, and oil in Venezuela. He has created numerous public artworks in collaboration with youth including CUP projects “Bodega Down Bronx” and “Scary, OK with it, Good.” Jonathan thinks CUP is cool.

Students from Boom Town

Students from UASCJ worked on an Urban Investigation on noise pollution. Those students were Suma Akter, Yasmeen Almoflihi, Alia Arshad , Durdona Asrorova, Alexis Barcia, Iqra Bibi, Nihar Bibi, Jocelyn Calixto, Sarah Elhanafi, Turanoom Haque, Shakila Hoque, Samira Kuieam, Aisha Meah, Neelam Mohammad, Nida Niaz, Kamrun Nur, Tiffany Paciulla, Yamali Paternina, Mercedesz Peikert, Taquasha Perry, Jessica Ramirez, Imani Reese, Aileen Rojo, Hajrah Sajjad, Ulfat Shaheen, Sanya Shema, Monika Sobieszczuk, Rani Sonia, Barbara Yaroshevsky, Amna Zafar, and Razak Zonia.

James Boyd

James was an intern for CUP 2018-19 school year. He was an Urban Studies major at Vassar College with concentrations in Sociology and Geography and a minor in English. Originally from Massachusetts, he is interested in the ways that architecture shapes the ways people perceive space and how preservation can be used to empower forgotten narratives. When he is not commuting to CUP from Poughkeepsie on the MetroNorth, he enjoys reading, knitting, and exploring the Hudson Valley. He is excited to support CUP’s urgent work in creating better and more equitable futures.

Joshua Breitbart

Joshua Breitbart is the Director of Field Operations for the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. Through participatory media, collaborative design, and open source tools, OTI and its partners are building an Internet that people can shape to meet their needs and dreams. In his job, Josh uses the lessons he has learned as a founding board member of CUP and as a collaborator on projects like “The Internet is Serious Business” and “What the Cell?"

The Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. We work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all. The Center’s work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from racial justice in criminal law to Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism. A singular institution — part think tank, part public interest law firm, part advocacy group, part communications hub — the Brennan Center seeks meaningful, measurable change in the systems by which our nation is governed.

Brooklyn Defender Services

Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is one of the largest public defense providers in the United States. BDS provides innovative, multi-disciplinary, and client-centered criminal, family, and immigration defense, civil legal services, social work support and advocacy, for tens of thousands of clients in Brooklyn every year. CUP teamed up with public defenders from Brooklyn Defender Services to create What You Need to Know About ACS and What Do Incarcerated Parents Need to Know About ACS?

Both guides break down the complex and difficult to navigate ACS investigation process, so parents know what’s coming and what they can do to make sure they get the best results for their family. http://bds.org/

Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A

Through innovative neighborhood-based advocacy, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A assists individuals, families, organizations, and coalitions in sustaining vibrant, healthy communities primarily in Brooklyn and throughout New York City. We embrace the meaningful role that lawyers have in combating poverty. We firmly believe that legal services organizations are accountable to low-income communities and are charged with the responsibility of understanding their needs and collaborating with them, through an array of advocacy methods, to address the problems they confront. Together with the voices of our communities, we advance social and economic justice.

Jade Broomfield

Jade Broomfield is a graphic designer from Newark, New Jersey. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from West Virginia University and is currently an MFA candidate at the School of Visual Arts studying Design for Social Innovation. Jade loves opportunities that allow her to combine her passions for design and social justice. She is interested in working with underrepresented groups and minority youth in ways that promote education, self acceptance, and neighborhood safety. When she is not working, designing, or studying you can find her searching for an obscure meal in NYC or keeping up with the latest social media trend.