UMA 2022 Houston Gathering Report

After two years, 170 Urban Manufacturing Alliance practitioners from every region of the United States gathered for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted in 2020. Perhaps due to the graveness of the last few years; perhaps having experienced the shared trauma of uncertainty multiplied by social uprising; perhaps having lived with broken systems and supply chains; or perhaps all of these things – this is why practitioners were both fired up and filled with gratitude as they met in person at the West Houston Institute in the Westchase neighborhood of Houston, Texas. Or maybe it was just the promise of warm weather, tacos, a local marketplace, and the 145
languages spoken by Houstonians that had folks energized. Whatever the case – people were smiling, present, and deeply engaged.