Beyond Ownership: Land, Housing, and the Fight for Equity

From skyrocketing rents, to restoring environments & retreating from neighborhoods threatened by climate change, questions of landownership lie at the heart of society’s most pressing issues. Typically grouped together with buildings as real estate, land is rarely discussed in our political discourse. Yet as the writer Audrea Lim describes in FREE THE LAND: How We Can Fight Poverty and Climate Chaos, America’s treatment of it as property and a commodity for profit has not only precipitated racial injustice and environmental destruction, but continues to fuel inequality and the housing & climate crises today.

In this conversation, Lim and the artist Amy Ching-Yan Lam discuss how real estate ownership is woven into our cities, societies, relationships and psyches. “It’s fucked up that my parents worked their whole lives (sometimes two jobs) and still can’t afford to buy their own house,” muses Lam in PROPERTY JOURNAL, a record she kept of every conversation concerning real estate, property or housing in 2022. “Not that everyone needs to own a house, but in the absence of other forms of security, what else is there?”

Childhood friends from the suburban oil city of Calgary, Canada, Lim and Lam reflect on the false promises of the American (and Canadian) Dream, and how the system of real estate ownership profoundly shapes our personal and collective futures.

__

Audrea Lim is the author of FREE THE LAND: How We Can Fight Poverty and Climate Chaos, and the editor of THE WORLD WE NEED: Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement. She is a Brooklyn-based writer whose work on land, energy, and the environment has appeared in the Harper’s, the New York Times, the Guardian, and The Nation.

Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer. She is the author of Property Journal (2024); Baby Book (2023), a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards in Poetry; and Looty Goes to Heaven (2022). Exhibitions and performances have been presented at Seoul MediaCity Biennale, South Korea; Western Front, Canada; Eastside Projects, United Kingdom; and numerous DIY venues. From 2006–2020, she was part of the performance art duo Life of a Craphead. She was born in Hong Kong and is based in Tkaronto/Toronto.

__

COMMUNITY CARE & ACCESSIBILITY

At AAWW, the safety and comfort of our community is our top priority. We invite you to practice intentionality and care in your behavior and language when engaging with our programs and with each other. Violence of any kind, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, class or casteism, bigotry or bias toward religion or faith, or any action or assault against marginalized identities, is not tolerated. Those who bring harm to our community in person or online are not welcome, and will be asked to exit the space.

The event will be live streamed on Zoom with auto captioning for those who cannot join us in person. For those joining us in person, we are located on the 6th floor of 112 W 27th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), there is an elevator that will take you directly to our office. To protect our friends with chemical sensitivities, AAWW is a fragrance-free space. Masks are required for audience members for all AAWW events; if you forget yours, one will be provided for you. We have three commercial grade air purifiers, and a quiet room in the back should you need some space from the crowd. We highly encourage all in person guests to take a COVID test at home prior to the event. If you have had COVID or have had known contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID in the 10 days prior, we ask you tune in for the live stream instead. Please reach out to [email protected] for additional accessibility requests, including ADA accessible bathrooms, chairs with added back support, and beyond. This space is for YOU!