The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide

The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.

Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.

Chip Chip 10/27/26 Chip Chip 10/27/26

NeighborSpace

Chicago's NeighborSpace land trust protects community gardens from development while empowering neighborhood groups to manage and steward shared green spaces as urban commons.

Chip Chip 7/4/26 Chip Chip 7/4/26

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial drew an integrated crowd of 75,000 after she was denied Constitution Hall because of her race. The performance became a defining example of public space expanding who could gather, belong, and be seen as part of “We the People.”

Chip Chip 12/16/25 Chip Chip 12/16/25

Donelle Wedderburn

Donelle is a Jamaican-American writer and audio producer. Her work sits at the intersection of Black history, oral storytelling, and the built environment. She has contributed to developing and producing a range of broadcasts and audio documentaries for NPR, ABC News, Food Culture Collective x Heal Food Alliance, and Ten Percent Happier. In her free time, she loves to write poetry and draw connections between literature and landscape. Black women writers like Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, and June Jordan moved through the worlds of storytelling, urban planning, and design and showed me it was possible to do the same.