💭 The Pathways to Liberation Project Phase II: Citing Some Sources ✨
The works that sustained me, and I hope you will hold them 2.
Hey people!
I really hope that you are settling into the cool seasons with ease, and have been finding moments of joy lately. I hope that you are taking good care of yourselves, your community, and your loved ones. And I hope that — although there’s a constant string of bad news, sad news, terrifying news — you are allowing yourself the ability to feel through everything and give yourself grace.
Today, as I’m continuing to prepare the next offerings of the Pathways to Liberation Project (aka, PTL Project) for you, I want to share some of the incredible pieces that have been speaking to me throughout this past year. Each of these readings, viewings, and listenings have inspired me and guided me as I have worked on the PTL Project and shared conversations with people about how powerful our Imagination is.
Consider this a syllabus, a multimedia passage towards the oral history archive (which will be coming up soon!), something to spark your imagination — and hopefully guide you towards some reflections and revelations that inspire you, too!
✨ 🏞️ Here you go:
🌟 Pathways to Liberation Project: The Guiding Lights 🌟
My Research Question: How does imagination lead to liberation, what are the ways we can dream towards freedom?
Where I am finding some answers…
Deem Journal: “adrienne maree brown On Creating The Future”
“I learned the terminology of imagination battle from my friend Terry Marshall, who works with the group Intelligent Mischief. Imagination battles begin with a subjective idea that is positioned as the truth and forced onto others. I think most of the inequalities that we face are exactly that. For example, the idea that men are superior. That's purely imaginary. That has nothing to do with reality at all. But once an idea is brought into the world, reality can be structured around it. Ideas can become systems of oppression. We know that because, to this day, we are still fighting for basic sh*t. Like equal pay, right? It's ridiculous. That’s an imagination battle—when you have to fight against something that is being imagined about you or against someone who is doing that imagining…
Imagination collaboration is inviting someone to be part of an idea or to create an idea with you… How do we make sure that the people who are most impacted by whatever's happening in a place get to co-imagine how that place can be? How do we prevent those people from being excluded from the conversation because of someone else's power dynamic imagining?”
— Excerpted from Deem’s interview with adrienne maree brown
(I’m also currently reading their books Emergent Strategy, and Pleasure Activism is up next.)
”How to Build a World: An Imperfect Guide” a zine by Jezz Chung
Also highly recommend their podcast, Dreaming Different. And I am currently reading their book, This Way to Change.
The artwork of Intelligent Mischief
Here are a few of my favorites (gathered from the Intelligent Mischief Instagram page):
Ismatu Gwendolyn’s public practice through Essay
Ismatu offers their essays in both audio and text format, I highly suggest you take some to read one or two… or binge like I do.
This is one that has been echoing to me since I first read it, and found its way into my final Independent Study project in college on forming “Fragments of Futurity”:
Annika Hansteen-Izora’s piece on “Communal Dreaming”
If we’ve talked about imagination and community before, I probably shared this with you one or two times (haha!). It’s one of my favorites and is such an emblem of affirmation for this whole “Imagination and education will build the future” theme I’m exploring.
“Dreaming asks me to train my attention to constantly critique the white imagination, to be disenchanted by it, bored of it - to ask of something beyond its violent limits. Dreaming asks me to re-educate myself on its radical potential.”
“The freedoms that I hold, that you hold, that we hold today, are because of the lineages of Black, Indigenous, POC, those with experiences in womanhood, sick and disabled, working class or poor, queer and trans genius that dreamed us into existence.”
— Excerpted from “Communal Dreaming”
Random Acts of Flyness, a show by Terrence Nance on HBO
Literally one of my favorite shows — ever! I was watching and re-watching throughout this project, and it’s forever inspiring. Brilliantly imaginative.
The curation and gathering of The Reading Room in Houston Texas
Founded by Amarie Gipson, doing the good work of making Black art, literature, and events accessible. And the website is so cool! So is the announcement video from last year:
How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind, a book by Dr. La Marr Jurelle Bruce
One of my favorite reads. Dr. Bruce talks about all things rage, Black artistry, and imaginative worldbuilding (it also was discussed in one of the conversations I had for the PTL Project) — I’m currently returning to this book as I’m working on another project.
Check out this video as an entry-point to this exploration of madness:
Freedom Dreams, a book by Robin D.G. Kelley
Of course, I have to include this foundational reading. Kelley’s work here mirrors and affirms the PTL Project so deeply, and was one of the first works I read when I started last year.
Also highly recommend you check out this video series of him discussing the book with other worldbuilders:
And (of course), if you know me, you know music was involved. I was listening to Solange’s A Seat at the Table and When I Get Home on repeat, and Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid. A lot of Earth, Wind, & Fire. Plenty Teezo Touchdown.
Here is a playlist with some of the songs that I had in rotation throughout this project (I’m still adding to the public playlist, so it may be a lil’ short when you’re seeing this).
That’s all I have for you this go-round. Thank you for browsing through, and I hope these pieces ignite your practice of imagining too!
Thanks for venturing to Phase II of The PTL Project with me! Phase III, up next (meeting the “Imaginative Visionaries” who shared their histories, you won’t want to miss it)!
Wishing you much grace, light, and a restful last few days of 2024.
See you in 2025 (or, if you follow @TALMBAT on Instagram, catch you there soon). 🤎
— 💌 Your TALMBAT Imaginative Visionary, Jasmine Lewis