Realizing the Radical Imagination
Fall 2024 Newsletter
Hey friends,
It’s been a while! We’ve missed you and trust you’re as well as can be in this climate.
Check in: what does care look like for you right now? For yourself, and for your closest people? Who are your people? What do you need?
What’s been up with us? Well,
What does care look like?: We’ve continue to hold space with Critical Connections, our periodic meeting space where Solutionaries convene and have critical conversations, allowing us to look within and among ourselves to continuously grow our relationships.
Our people: We’ve been focused on answering these 5 Questions from BYP 100 founding director, Charlene Carruthers as a means to deepen the intentionality of our work, further understanding and broadening who our people are.
Our needs: We’ve been furthering developing our editorial abilities so we can continuously (and soon more consistently haha) deliver intentional content toward invoking curiosity, and building community using our newsletter!
It’s been a journey as we’ve learned more about refining our printing efforts while revising our whole design layout and platform (so many layers of learning 🤓). For those who have contributed, we thank you for your efforts and patience as we’ve held your work for a while.
To our readers, we appreciate your time, energy, and effort you’ll put into sifting through our latest issue which focuses on the ✨Radical Imagination✨ - READ IT RIGHT NEOWWWWW.
Some highlights from our latest issue includes:
I tried to join the police force — it was toxic, by Allison Stankrauff: Allison uncovers her experience as a trainee with the Detroit Police Department as this piece ends with restorative resources + police accountability groups should you be interested in alternatives to police that are rooted in CARE - READ MORE
Making a Just Transition: Triniti on the power of resource mobilizing: In an interview with Ru, Triniti uncovers the importance of interconnectivity within our community as a means toward mobilizing for collective power - READ MORE
Courageous Rewilding, by Teddy White: in this essay, Teddy reflects on the history, harm, and healing of the land we pervade daily. What does it mean to connect to ourselves individually and collectively, with land in mind? #FreeTheLand - READ MORE
Find powerful words from Emani + Ru, reflecting on Radical Imagination, artwork and creative writing from our community members interweaved as well!
We’re excited for what’s to come for The Solutionaries and as we develop our efforts, we hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your monies will help fund our printing efforts AND help us move toward paying our contributors a lil something for their time + efforts. We do this for free.99 right now but if you believe in grassroots publications.. support if you can 🙂
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
We wanna uplift the work of our friends, other Solutionaries who are using their powers + abilities to transform the world. Let’s get into it:
AltNubian: Our friend and publication contributor, Kamau Jawara presents AltNubian, a blog delivering critical content with vibrant illustrations toward internal questioning + reflection.
His latest post is just in time for Thanksgiving, actually: Soul Food Will not Come from Meijer or Settler Colonialism
Check out his guide for those looking to get into organizing, Rebel Scum Papers: Where to get involved + How to start
The Peoples Book Club: Presented by Francessa Lamarre, this communal space intends to gather folks with a curated book selection in mind as you engage in critical conversation.
Next book club reading - The Salt Eaters x Toni Cade Bambara: an experimental novel centering a Black American woman fighting for some balance between her family, career, and a commitment to social activism. The Salt Eaters offers a unifying epiphany of creation and community.
When + where?: Thursday, Dec. 19 from 6-9pm - LEARN MORE
Carceral Fictions + Abolitionist Realities: birthed from the radical imagination of Lauren Williams and serving as an extension of their exhibition + imaginative, abolitionist-centered living room presented in 2021 (and featured on our blog), here lies Carceral Fictions + Abolitionist Realities
This podcast imagines abolitionist worlds, interweaving those speculations with conversations about abolitionist practice - LEARN MORE
OK dassit for now! We appreciate y’all! May all this goodness carry you through the weekend and through the colder months. May you challenge yourself and others to lean into your radical imagination ✨
Much love + gratitude,
Ru + Emani🖤