Participant screenshots
Workshop Description
A collaborative writing experience that will unleash and weave together alternative futures. We want to sharpen our imaginations and dream into existence the world(s) we yearn for, all while holding onto the truth that none of us is free if we are not all free. In Part 1, we will build a world together and participants will write an individual future story for themselves/their family/their community. In Part 2, we will listen to each other’s stories and weave particular elements together so that we see how our imaginations and dreams relate to each other’s; our collective story will be woven together from threads from our individual stories (as they are already).
This session is derived from other brilliant resources including (but not limited to) adrienne maree brown’s detroit sci fi generator, The Fearless Collective’s Feminist Cartographer’s Toolkit, Dark Mountain Project, and Story-based Strategy.
Each participant will need access to pen/paper and ability to edit a live google doc for the exercise. This exercise will be co-facilitated by Grant and Lawrence. Participation will be enhanced by each participant’s capacity to do work in between Part 1 and Part 2. All are welcome to join Part 1 even if you cannot join Part 2.
**Participation in Part 1 is a pre-requisite for joining Part 2.**
More info about Lawrence Barriner II, here
More info about Grant Williams, here
Workshop Documents
- Day 1 (~55 participants)
- Day 2 (~30 participants)
Homework examples
Lawrence
journal entry
3rd day of spring, 2080
today was hard. i had the first fight of my life that didn’t resolve. someone from the neighboring massachusett territory disagreed with my decision to donate my land to the wampanoag land trust. i tried to breathe through it but i just couldn’t tap into the earth deeply enough. i will ask saida to hold me tonight as i reground and prepare for the conversation tomorrow. i wish i could have called grandpapa. i hate that that video phones don’t work anymore.
ok sleepy time now. more tomorrow.
~ fray
Grant
On the sixth bell, Roux felt her inhaled breath expand beyond her chest and into soil. On the next inhale she could feel the shivering grasses of the meadow around her. On the third, it reached into the roots of the trees, thickets, and creek bed beyond. She began probing for the hurt in the forest; for thirst in the roots and nutrient-starved soils. It had been a dry spring, too dry. It was time for a change.
On the seventh bell, Roux pinged the Regional Network of Season Shapers to upload the data from her county. She knew that calling the rain in wouldn’t sit well with her neighbors to the North, not after the late blizzards they were dealt, which still offered them snow-melt for a few weeks. The network always did their best to compromise before enacting spells for climate regulation. And Mother Earth, of course, always had her own plans.
Unleashing Alternative Futures 