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UPDATE: Watch the Building Better Bushwick panel live. We’re streaming it from the Light Space Studios. For online discussion use hashtag #BetterBushwick.

This Saturday, Bushwick Film Festival is hosting a free panel discussion titled Building a Better Bushwick, featuring five local panelists discussing how neighborhood businesses and residents can make Bushwick a better place. Topics include education, development, artists, community dynamics and the next generation, and they’ll be making time for audience questions, so come prepared to ask away.

“Whether they be matters of education, gentrification, economics, and the environment, we want all local residents to have the opportunity to share their concerns so that they can make a difference in their community,” wrote BFF community outreach director Melanie Balousek, who is also hosting the event.

The discussion will be moderated by festival founder and director Kweighbaye Kotee, with support from The Silent Barn.

The panelists are:

Thomas Burr Dodd, the owner of Brooklyn Fire Proof 

Jose Lopez, lead organizer of Make the Road New York

Meryl Meisler, artist and art educator (and Bushwick Daily occasional contributor)

Daryl-Ann Saunders, artist and activist

Nadine Whitted, district manager of Bushwick’s Community Board 4

The event is held at Lightspace Studios at 1115 Flushing Ave., and it’s free with RSVP. Doors open at 11:30AM and the discussion starts at noon.

And, if you’re interested in thinking and talking more about change in Bushwick, The Silent Barn (at 603 Bushwick Ave.) is also hosting an all-day workshop on “Development Without Displacement,” sponsored by the Graduate Program in Design and Urban Ecologies at The New School, on Sunday from 10AM – 5PM. Can we make Cayuga Capital and Read Properties attend, please? They’ll be discussing the Rheingold Brewery site rezoning and talking about how residents can help guide future rezoning processes to make sure they benefit the community.