Manifest dismantling means opening concrete spaces to reclaiming life

Evidence

For now, these old survivors sheltered here—as did I—in a space formerly dedicated to the demands of war. I wasn’t expecting to encounter it today, but this may be the best illustration of what manifest dismantling has to offer to those who are willing to receive it. When we pry open the cracks in the concrete, we stand to encounter life itself—nothing less and nothing more, as if there could be more. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 682

Categorization

• DEFINE: This passage gives the first concrete instance of ‘manifest dismantling’ — an industrial site reclaimed by birds as the payoff of cracking concrete.