The Diane Lewis Student Lecture Series | Earl Kwofie + Sarah Saad: A check-in from the field

Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 12 - 2pm

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Sarah Saad

This event will be screened in room 315F and through Zoom. 

For in-person attendance, please register in advance here
For Zoom attendance, please register in advance here.

Alumni Earl Kwofie AR’23 and Sarah Saad AR’23 will present on the intersections of architectural language, civic engagement, and speculative world-building. The event features these two recent graduates exploring how architectural practice expands beyond traditional boundaries. Kwofie’s work bridges game development and historical commentary through the lens of Afrofuturism, while Saad’s practice focuses on community planning, self-publishing, and anti-modernist histories. Together, they will examine how the next generation of practitioners navigates the complex relationships between digital media, public service, and the built environment.

A conversation and Q&A moderated by Belinda Lin will follow the presentations.

Earl Kwofie AR’23 is a designer currently practicing at Anik Pearson Architect and teaching at The Cooper Union. His professional experience also includes roles at offices such as Knippers Helbig, Steinberg Hart, and Reform Architecture.

Independently, Earl's work bridges game development and architectural language through a variety of projects centered on Afrofuturism and historical commentary. His achievements have been recognized with several awards and grants, including the Center for Architecture Design Scholarship and The Benjamin Menschel Fellowship. Most recently, he was a finalist in the International Architecture Competition for the Temporary Pavilion at CARIFESTA XV.

Sarah Saad AR’23 is the founder of Sa'ada, a design and art practice. She served as the Staff Designer at NYC Planning in the Community Planning and Civic Engagement division, where she focused on creating visual assets to facilitate collaboration and communication between NYC Planning and the communities it serves. Before joining NYC Planning, she worked at Pure+Applied and Storefront for Art and Architecture, gaining experience in exhibition and graphic design. She self-published a few zines titled “When I Digress...” Parts 1 and 2, and “Hassan Fathy: An Anti-Modernist Egyptian Architect”. She is a graduate of the Cooper Union, where she studied architecture, and is based in Queens, New York.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

Located at 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.