'Wisdom Mapping' and Civic Re-imagination
Last year, I went to a screening of the Observer documentary at Trees Atlanta. Afterward, we practiced the skill of observation using small, red wooden squares. We split into pairs and scattered around a meadow that used to be a bread-baking facility. The simple activity got me thinking about how slowing down and paying attention to our surroundings alongside conversation partners can help us connect with our neighbors, ourselves, and the ground under our feet.
I was reminded of this activity when I shadowed a team of Atlanta Parks Department employees this summer at the Lake Charlotte Nature Preserve. I was drawn to their analytical yet thoughtful method of data collection as they worked to inventory public forests across the city. They mapped hilltops and bottomlands, getting down to each and every tree species and ground cover contained in randomized plots---not to hoard or control but to make better decisions about stewarding the pockets of greenspaces and to connect them across our urban landscape.
Both examples of looking closer, driven by both science and care, prompted me to pitch a story idea to an Atlanta-based public art project. To my delight, they liked the idea, and my essay 'Wisdom Mapping' was included in the project released this fall: a free newsletter called The Spark, filled with ideas about civic engagement and re-imagination. I wrote about the newsletter's launch event for Canopy Atlanta. Since The Spark is only available via several limited-edition newsstands located in Atlanta, I thought I'd share the summary article about the project below.
I hope you enjoy, and are prompted to go looking for ways to map embodied wisdom (both human and otherwise) in your own "neck of the woods"!
Sparking New Ideas About Atlanta
by Joseph R. Goodall
Originally published in the Canopy Atlanta Voices email dated October 16, 2026
On September 26, as golden-hour sunlight filled the renovated Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, artists, organizers, and community advocates from across metro Atlanta gathered around tables of potluck dishes. At the door, writer Hannah Palmer passed out black and yellow-printed pages filled with poetry, essays, and proposals for making our city more livable, inclusive and even fun.
This Saturday evening party was the first meeting for the Department of Public Reimagination (DPRI). No, it’s not an actual government agency. Instead, with a $6,000 Nexus Fund grant, Palmer and two other Atlantans sought to creatively remove perceived barriers to civic participation and give residents permission to dream. Cultural strategist Rukhsana Nezam, DPRI’s “Chief Analyst of Possibility,” said that government itself could be our “art medium.”
The “department”’s first order of business was to create The Spark, a free newsletter being distributed in bright orange newsstands across metro Atlanta. Designed (and even printed) by Sarah Lawrence, the public art project was made to be lightweight and portable.
As one of more than 20 contributors, I felt a thrum of excitement holding a copy, which grew as I witnessed other contributors share their “sparks” in person. Carley Rickles wanted to make gardens out of Atlanta’s excessive parking lots, and lumberjack James Williams proposed a job training program for urban foresters and furniture makers in the Southside. Genia Billingsley, who told me about DPRI, included Canopy Atlanta in her infographic about grassroots groups already tackling local issues.
As for me, I wrote about shadowing a team of Atlanta Parks Department employees inventorying public forests. The care with which they surveyed the trees made me consider how to map and preserve other forms of wisdom in our neighborhoods.
After I talked about my article, James approached me. He recognized that we have different perspectives on how to steward the threatened yet over-abundant trees across our complex city. For a moment, the conversation felt awkward, though I quickly recognized the goodwill behind his approach. Rather than avoid disagreement, we exchanged contact information and are continuing the conversation.
Metro Atlanta is filled with out-of-the-box thinkers. Palmer, Nezam and Lawrence have created another avenue for sharing ideas and connecting the humans behind them, igniting creativity and collaboration. Under the playful umbrella of a fictional bureaucracy, The Spark offers a roadmap for turning the city we love into something even better.
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