This Chicago-based urban planner and community organizer joins our team to weave together an intentional and caring Documenters Network across the country.

By Nora Bryne

Portrait taken by Caroline Olsen

We are excited to welcome Navjot to the team as City Bureau’s new Network Coordinator for our Documenters Network! 

Navjot is a Chicago-based urban planner who brings years of experience in community organizing, architecture, and urban planning. They are one of two Network Coordinators joining the Documenters Network Success team to connect, support, and engage with sites across the country. Navjot was born and raised in the Central Valley of California to a big, close-knit Panjabi family, and moved to Chicago in 2019. Looking to deepen their organizing practice and civic knowledge, they joined Chicago Documenters soon after. Navi’s commitment to community engagement and fostering relationships will build dynamic and strong connections across the growing Documenters Network. 

We asked Navjot to share a little bit about their experiences and what they are bringing to the role. Here are some of the highlights, edited for length and clarity.

You have a background that spans urban planning and organizing. Tell us about your experience in these fields. How do you see them building upon each other?

My family migrated from Punjab, a state in present day India and Pakistan, and I watched them try to navigate confusing systems for care and support. They really relied on co-creating spaces for basic care with their community. Our home became a landing pad for many family members moving to California. I went into architecture school with the intention of creating dignified housing and public spaces for people. College was a culture shock and I realized the ways my communities and people I love are policed, surveilled, and impacted by systemic violence. Learning about the housing movement and different ways people experiencing oppression build power was a really impactful journey in school. Architecture and urban planning developed my spatial language, including being able to translate ideas and concepts into visuals and physical spaces.

I moved to San Francisco after college, with the desire to design affordable housing, parks, and libraries, and it’s where I became even more aware of gaps in my knowledge and how theories in school collided with design work in practice. Folks nationwide are consistently facing gentrification, displacement, lack of resources, and are being overlooked in city decisions. When my sister moved to Chicago and was immersed in different organizing spaces and working on important campaigns across the city, it pushed me to rethink my architectural design work and its impact. Then and now, I aim to use the tools of urban planning, architecture, and community organizing to disrupt and build dignified, life affirming programs and spaces. When I moved to Chicago, I was at a clear point where I realized traditional architectural design work wasn’t for me. Instead I wanted to learn from community organizers, build deep relationships, and lend my experience and skills in service of impactful, transformational work. 

Tell us about the places you call home and your connection to the midwest.

For me, home is more about people versus the physical place. Like many second-generation immigrants, I have a complicated relationship with home. My family comes from Panjab and they raised us with a deep understanding of our history, culture, language, and values. I was born and raised in Kerman, California, and most of my family still lives in the Central Valley, so that will always feel like home. It’s really beautiful to see everyone together during gatherings, and sharing foods and resources with each other and their community. It’s the type of loving home I want to build wherever I live. When I moved to Chicago, I only knew my sister. Folks are so welcoming and kind, especially as you struggle together and build tight bonds of trust. I feel really rooted and grounded in Chicago and imagine I’ll be here for a while! 

What is your approach to building relationships?

My parents taught me to listen first and talk second. I start by listening and seeking out common threads to build upon. Building relationships takes a long time because building trust is a slow process. I try to embody that slowness and allow things to ebb and flow. One aspect of this is not forcing connections and not enforcing solutions. Let things naturally emerge. Relationships should not be transactional, so take a step back, listen to what is most important, divorce your ego from the process, and slowly and intentionally build together. 

What’s something that keeps you grounded in your own work?

My values keep me grounded, which is true for a lot of people doing movement work. Some of those core values include dignity, trust, accountability, curiosity, courage, compassion, creativity, honesty, and freedom. In these spaces driven by values, we collectively vision, work to build the systems and world we need, and center all the impacted people deserving of love and care. It can be challenging to continually orient yourself towards that liberatory future, but not doing this work in isolation and being in community with others helps to keep me grounded. 

How did you find City Bureau and what is something you are looking forward to in your role here?

I wanted to know how the local government works, so my sister and friends directed me to City Bureau’s Twitter and newsletters. When I was in urban planning school, I wanted to understand how city planning decisions were made and implemented at the local level. This led me to the Chicago Documenters program and I joined in 2020. At first I wasn’t able to attend meetings because of my full-time job. After the pandemic started, I was able to take my first virtual assignments. I participated in a few special assignments with the Civic Reporting fellows, which included interviewing folks who rent in South Shore and immigrant communities on their voting experiences. My last assignment was covering a 9-hour city budget meeting, tweeting furiously and enjoying the adrenaline rush. The organizing groups I am part of use Chicago Documenters notes to see what is being discussed in certain meetings that we cannot attend. In my role as network coordinator, I’m really looking forward to working with Documenters. They have so many great ideas, understand what their city needs, and come up with the best ways to share information with their communities. I also can’t wait to support and engage with all the amazing sites who are rooted in their communities and working to bridge the information gap. 

To connect with Navjot, feel free to reach out at navjot@citybureau.org. 

Support City Bureau’s civic journalism model by becoming a recurring donor today.

Take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of local government and civic power with help from our Newswire Newsletter, powered by Chicago Documenters. The biweekly newsletter is made for Chicagoans who want to make a difference in the life of their communities.