Jay Pitter

Jay Pitter is an award-winning public space practitioner, researcher, and author creating joyful public spaces that foster belonging, prosperity, and cultural memory. She advances this work through cultural planning, policy frameworks, and storytelling—bridging rigor and collective imagination to advance public joy as essential urban infrastructure and a human right. She is also the creator of the Public Joy Framework, a civic, cultural, and spatial approach to strengthening belonging and collective flourishing. As an adjunct urban planning professor and lecturer, Jay has engaged students at Cornell, Princeton, and MIT Universities. Her book, Black Public Joy: No Permit or Permission Required (Penguin Random House Canada, 2026), is gaining strong momentum. It was included on Forbes’ Summer Reading List, longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards, featured through two book readings at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and is currently the focus of a 12-city North American book t