Express

Engage and Persist

Writing

From the foundation of a people's government in the Magna Carta to modern-day New York City – whether it be the unjustifiable seizure of private property or a payout fractions of an area's worth, eminent domain has been a law ripe for exploitation and abuse. Eminent domain, the government's power to take private property for public use, provided fair compensation is paid, has been a contentious legal tool throughout history.

The essay The Dynamics of Eminent Domain: Revisiting Urban Narratives, focus one eminent domains evolution through a series of court cases that slowly expanded the scope of the law as well as highlighting controversial implementations of eminent domain such as the story of Seneca Village. The essay concludes with suggestions to improve and redefine eminent domain powers.



Research

During this studio I strengthened by research and writing skills by writing a ten page research paper on eminent domain and its impacts on marginalized communities. This is one of the longest essays I've written in a while and a muscle we don't use as often as I would like at NuVu. I'm very proud of the prose I used throughout the paper and its flow.

Writing a long paper in such limited time could be incredibly frustrating and mentally taxing at times so I had to engage and persist. One of the things I found helped me most was to take short walks around the space, this helped me to recenter myself and keep me focused