We're thrilled to announce the newest member of our Neighborhood Commons project team, our Photo Urbanism Fellow Barnabas Crosby!

Barnabas Crosby is a Brooklyn-based educator, visual storyteller, and native of Cleveland. In 2010, Barnabas started Whiskey Boys Ent., a storytelling vehicle to share stories of Everyday Black Living through black and white stills and moving pictures. In 2015 while working alongside the BKLYN Combine and Humanities NY, Barnabas created the annual reading and conversation platform Baldwin + Friends. 

Trained as a playwright and dramaturg, Barnabas uses education, art, and media to teach young people how to craft their individual and cultural narratives.

As Photo Urbanism Fellow, Barnabas will be documenting how small businesses are leveraging and using public spaces in new and innovative ways. While the project will look at policy and design changes required to give small businesses easier access to public space, the Photo Urbanism Fellow will tell human, personal narratives about small businesses during this challenging time. You can learn more about the Photo Urbanism program and check out past fellows' work here.

See some of Barnabas' photography below and at the Whiskey Boys Ent. Instagram.

This year, Design Trust has added a new component to the Photo Urbanism Program in the form of a youth fellowship titled, Neighborhood Narratives, which will take place between April - June 2021. In collaboration with the NeON Photography Network, four youth fellows will be chosen to capture and tell the stories of their neighborhoods through their own independent photography projects. These projects will be virtually exhibited in the summer of 2021 in tandem with the Photo Urbanism Fellow, who will serve as a mentor throughout the duration of the neighborhood Narratives fellowship.