UNIVERSITY OF ORANGE INC
47 Cleveland St, Orange, NJ 07050 universityoforange.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The University of Orange is a free peoples school and community organization that builds collective capacity for people to create more equitable cities. We solve the problems of our world by learning to see the richness of our cities, becoming lifelong learners, participating in civic life, and having fun with our neighbors.

University of Orange is a founding member of the 400 Years of Inequality initiative. 2019 was the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to be sold into bondage in North America in 1619 at Jamestown. The initiative called on families, organizations, neighborhoods and cities to observe the anniversary by telling their stories of oppression and resistance. Across the country, approximately 110 groups gathered to hold 150 observances. Events ranged in size from small gatherings to a theater performance (Shining Lights in the Lingering Night) with 300 attendees, an event at Riverside Church in NYC (Stolen Hands, Stolen Lands: from 1619 to a Just Future) with 800 attendees and a series of panels, workshops and performances at the Brooklyn Public Library (Til Victory is Won: 400 Years of Making Revolution and Inventing Utopia) with 1100 attendees. Before the observances, representatives from our collective traveled across the country to 22 cities, leading 26 workshops, 23 talks, 3 webinars and building support for the initiative. We also developed learning tools to share with groups choosing to observe. Our collective helped to host a number of observances across New York and New Jersey, including Stolen Hands, Stolen Lands: from 1619 to a Just Future (800 attendees), Shining Lights in the Lingering Night (300 attendees), and Remembering Rosa (listed above in Music City). Our collective also professionally documented seven observances for continued work researching the effect of this project.

Music City connects and supports musicians in and around Orange. The programs long term goals include building social cohesion, enhancing civic engagement, launching local music economies, and exploring the ways music can help lay a path towards a healthier, more equitable city. We offer free community music classes, an instrument rental library, and a community musicology program. In December a Community Musicology Concert was hosted at Luna Stage (with 25 attendees). This years annual Remembering Rosa concert was organized in solidarity with the 400 years of Inequality Initiative. This event marked the inaugural performance of the Orange Intergenerational Choir and featured a performance of a commissioned work by Dr. Margaux Simmons. There were 40 participating performers and approximately 125 attendees. In January 2020 we hosted a Living Room Concert featuring three local and regional artists: Eastern Foreigner, a glassy ruckus, and the 99 Trip. The concert was attended by 45 people. We also hosted a Jan Term Seminar on Music and Social Movements, attended by 10 people. Beginning in 2020 these programs had to be adapted to virtual programming and Music City offered 1 online class attended by 5 people and offered stipends for musicians to produce online content. In the earliest months of the Covid19 pandemic we re-allocated resources and leveraged our networks to provide translation and communications support to local health coalitions working to disseminate important information about Covid-19 and grassroots public health measures.

University of Orange has a range of other programming, mostly focused on restoration urbanism. During this fiscal year, UofOs urbanism department worked with Hector Design to design youth summer programming in Detroit as a part of the Cody Rouge & Warrendale Neighborhood Framework resulting in a youth-centric neighborhood plan. The youth summer urbanism program resulted in a Youth Urbanism Summit. We collaborated with two Detroit-based educators/artists to design and lead the programming. We partnered with the Design Studio for Social Intervention on their InPublic events, and worked with them to complete a report on equitable development strategies titled Horizontal Development: Equitable Development for City-makers. We were partners on a research initiative with ONE DC as part of the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program of Robert Wood Johnson. This project was called Making the Just CIty and it examined gentrification in Orange, NJ and the Shaw neighborhood of Washington DC. We began convening a weekly Urbanism team with eleven members as well as a weekly meeting of practitioners interested in Collective Trauma Recovery with 17 members. Both teams worked to produce digital programming after the Covid-19 lockdown including a reading group, zine workshop, birding classes, music course and a virtual graduation. Total number tickets reserved for online events: 515.

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