We all need agency to feel the power and joy of acting in the face of challenge and opportunity. But we also need humility and restraint to ensure that we guard against hubris and harm. We need trusted and testable navigation tools to give us confidence in our creative power and cautiousness in carrying out our work. Instead of looking for answers, what we are all seeking are tools for navigating the increasingly complex, noisy, conflicted culture that we inhabit. A personal manifesto is one of those tools.

In You Need a Manifesto: How to Craft Your Convictions and Put Them to Work, Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, MA, director of community at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”), first defines the challenges of information overload we all experience today. Then she shows how to craft a personal creed that will help you face daily tasks and roadblocks and create more purpose in your work.

Explanations and hands-on design-based exercises are based on vibrant quotes and excerpts from a curated collection of designers, artists, writers, scientists, and social activists. These quotes serve both as inspiration and material for the activities. Each chapter of the book is also preceded by a graphic manifesto by artist and master letterpress printer Rick Griffith, who created his illustrations in response to the material in each chapter, to guide and inspire you to see what you can produce for yourself.

Burgess-Auburn will be in conversation with Liz Gerber, Ph.D. (FAN ’13 and ‘16), a professor at Northwestern University, co-director of Northwestern’s Center for Human Computer Interaction + Design, and faculty founder of Design for America, a national network of interdisciplinary students who work together to solve problems they care about in their community.

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.

This event is presented by Family Action Network (FAN). Gorton Center is proud to partner with FAN as a sponsor of this event to bring this programming to our patrons.