‘Space of Urgency’ is the name of an emergent concept we use to describe the current state of independent cultural spaces. It refers to the challenges underrepresented cultural communities face trying to establish and maintain spaces within disabling urban, legal and political environments, as well as the urgent and protective role cultural space has in sheltering such communities.

A space of urgency is:

• a self-organized physical space
• a free space to organize community projects and collective rituals
• where social values trump commercial profits
• resisting dominant law & social norm injustices
• striving for socio-political change beyond the boundaries of the space

Spaces of urgency are culturally determined social and political spaces created by and for a community. They arise out of our need to act, connect, mobilize and protest, and pioneer new ways of collective liberation. This is why the actions that take place within spaces of urgency are so varied in color – from ecstatic dancing to self-determined living, or being a base for networking and community organization – are in each case a powerful tactic to physically mobilize under a shared urgency.

Having an independent physical space for connection, mobilization and solidarity is a precondition for self-organizing communities to grow, shatter old ways of thinking, and pursue socio-political impact beyond its boundaries. The space and its community have a reinforcing effect on each other. Communities are formed through connections made from communal projects and collective rituals. The space being the binding resource –  harbors and protects the birth of new ideas, community organization and revolutionary thought as it seeps slowly into broader society and influences system change.

Spaces of urgency manifest new models of collective living, working and creating. Underpinned by social, political and economic pressures, they release a tremendous amount of creative energy in pursuit of new tools, tactics and strategies that evolve our urban resilience. Space of Urgency aims to collect, document and share these unified theories of space and strategies against displacement, as a way to generate growth and resilience along our pathway of evolution.

The urgency is enforced by external conditions that surround the boundary of a space, and the minds of a community working for bottom-up insurrection. Urgencies can be triggered by society’s negative, marginalizing & stigmatizing attitudes towards certain other domains of society; by an unsupportive repressive government and legal system; or as a penalty to those who don’t conform to a profit driven approach when creating community active spaces. In each case, a space of urgency becomes a tool of resistance, shelter for cultural communities and social movements, and a vehicle to drive a political narrative against displacement and inequality.

As a unifying metaphor – Space of Urgency draws immediate attention to the precarious position of independent cultural spaces. The Covid-19 global crisis, an expanding  war, coupled with economic standstill and political polarisation threatens the very existence of social ecosystems where non-dominant youth culture, queer communities and other underrepresented groups reside. Within this current socio-political crisis,  pre-existing issues such as lack of funding and resources, politically disabling environments, corporate takeovers, gentrification, commodification, social stigmatization and marginalization are only exacerbated.