MEMORY BOOK
PREFIGURINGFUTURES L BA
“And we will rise Higher and higher On the wings of compassion Justice And hope“
CHANGE ELEMENTAL June 2024
Some gifts from our journey
We are still basking in the beauty and joy of our time together, holding close the connection and experimentation, tenderness, and power—the magical energy we conjured together in our Prefiguring Futures Lab! In this memory book, we share stories, quotes, art, threads, and photos from our time together. We hope you return to this offering to guide and feed you as needed!
An incantation
Invitation to Breath
Breath is spirit
How are you breathing?
Invitation to water
Water is life
How are you tending to your flow?
Invitation to joy
Joy is relief, release, feeling seen, laughter
What is your attention to joy?
What is your intention for the joy of others?
On behalf of our ancestors, related in struggle and hardship, celebration, rest and joy, we came to Muhheacannituck, current and ancestral homelands of the Wesquaesgeek, stop on the Underground Railroad, place of great suffering and violence, resistance and celebration, bringing connection and practice for liberation, seeking connection and practice for liberation.
Breath, water, interdependent flourishing and rest, stretching, composting and nourishing, prefiguring futures.
LAB FLOW
June, 2024, Tarrytown, New York
DAY 1
Landing, Grounding, Sacred Space Building
LANDS (Liberation & Sovereignty fka Deep Equity) Theory of Transformation
DAY 2
Sound Medicine
Locating Ourselves + the Lab
Somatics, Embodiment, + Neurosomatic Intelligence
Complexity and Shared Power
Innerwork
DAY 3
Multiple Ways of Knowing
Feedback + Generative Tension + Embracing Emotions
Experimentation: Moving Forward Planfully in Complexity
DAY 4
Experimentation, Part 2
Casting Forward
DAY 5
Resonant Learning
A Ceremony of Gratitude
The Land
Th l d i ki i t Thi l thi l d t ded us. s as we ch e.
feel at about the ntries ship,
Offerings
Our altar
Altar before participant offerings
The altar included tobacco, stones, the three sisters squash, beans, and corn water, sage, and more. A place to hold us, call us within, and offer sacred gifts, to make introductions to each other and the land.
Altar with participant offerings
What We Offered
Dawn redwood seeds
The Bluest Eye, by Toni
Morrison
An ancestor’s mirror
Drawing of a penguin
wood carving
A scarf from the Horn of Africa
A bell used in Hindu temples
A photo of 2 white queer
southern antiracist people
Caracol shell earring
Forest Walk Invitations, by
Gesturing Toward
Decolonial Futures & Teia
das 5 Curas Collectives
Poppy flower seeds
A pen
Soil from Ghana
Bornite Rock
Amethyst, citrine
Vagus nerve oil
A wild magnolia drawing
Spruce cone
An embroidered handkerchief, “mothering is love by any means necessary revolutionary mothering”
A graduation tassel
A heart piece from Kenya
Queen of hearts
A handmade beaded leather piece
A mother’s bracelet
A bracelet
PRINCIPLES FOR PRACTICE
Weaving our rhythm together
We reflected, connected, and marked the moment of our time together. We shared our stories and the stories of our communities and kin. We found co-conspirators and became thought partners. We embraced multiple ways of knowing and inner work with movement, song, breath, and art-making. We waded through and into complexity, embodied our conflict shapes, and let the energy of our emotions flow. We listened to ourselves and each other. We broke bread and busted moves, floated in the pool, and rested together.
We hope you hold the joy and rigor as you move through your experiments and prefigure the future!
Connecting Through Art, Song, & Play
Art medicine
We made art to play, release, connect, embrace our multiple ways of knowing, and share a bit of ourselves with one another.
“English is an inhibitor. Using it in poetry is a way we can use the language of the colonizers together for liberation. ” - Jen
“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been concealed by the answers. ”
— James Baldwin
Song medicine
We sang movement songs, discerned our soul tones, and came together in ensemble and as virtuosos. We invite you to listen to these three movement songs Sage led us through, and notice our resonance, our individual and collective voices, the ways we sync together. How does your body shift with each piece?
We Will Rise by
Linda Parris-Bailey
We have been burned Burned by the fire
And we are Ashes Ashes and smoke And we will rise Higher and higher On the wings of compassion Justice And hope
Click here to watch!
Click here to watch!
What Will You do For Liberation?
Chorus (repeat after every “I will..”)
I am not afraid I am not afraid
I will die for liberation because I know why I was made I will give for liberation because I know why I was made I will forgive for liberation because I know why I was made
I will love for liberation because I know why I was made I will stretch for liberation because I know why I was made
I will cry for liberation because I know why I was made
I will sing for liberation because I know why I was made
I will change for liberation because I know why I was made
I will live for liberation because I know why I was made
Play medicine
We found joy in card games, blowing bubbles, karaoke duets, ribbon dancing, swimming,
“Gaming [and] play allow us to imagine possibilities beyond this world….Things are hard. [We] have grief but bring in play, imagination, and joy and what opens up as a result of it.” - Lil Milagro
“What could we get access to with a little bit of mischief?”
- Asha
“How might play be used in liberating practices?“ - Naim
The five elements & liberatory transformation
LANDS
Sovereignty & Liberation Reparations & Rematriation
(east, south, west, north)
LANDS' work is NOT calibrated for white people. We intentionally and continuously center the experiences and futures of Black and Indigenous peoples. Liberation and sovereignty are mutually transformative and regenerative, not in competition or scarcity. Understanding and appreciating our differences and our deep commonality and kinship.
“Liberation is constant dreaming. When we center it as a thing, a table, a place, as a solo getting to liberation, that is where that tension shows up...We will constantly be in an iteration of liberation, not a rotation, but a continued process. It makes me think: how do we get there together, the ability to be together in a process of constant dreaming. ”Sage
“I think the land does need us. We have both been in relationship and caretaking of the land. We have direct accountability with the land. I don’t think it will be fine without us. We’ve done too much.” - Lil Milagro
Kin
Elissa Sloan Perry
We all know in all of the ways one knows that we are kin. This land and all the more stewards us.
A prayer for rain is a praye for all of us.
My parents and yours Touch. Laugh. Share food. Our descendants Siblings of an uncertain fu Rife with belonging. We hold our differences loosely because we know ourselves and each other And the land. The land knows us all even better and because land is land it loves us anyway.
INVITATIONS
How could you locate yourself and/or your lineage with regard to liberation and sovereignty that is not a reification of settler colonialism?
We are our ancestors' dreams - our healed ancestors…. And what about our unhealed ancestors for whom we might be their biggest nightmare? How do we engage both and heal forward and back?
Click here to watch!
“Masculinity can’t be toxic. It is part of nature, just as femininity is. What we are seeing in masculinity has been coopted by humans. I don’t think it has anything to do at all with masculinity.” - Esjay
“If everything is a cycle and not just a line, then we are going back. The fortune I have to see what I have seen to now be expansive but with deep roots, to spiral back and be land based and have much bigger views.“ - Asha
Power and love, that is our language in social justice. Sometimes we talk about jargon as if it is a bad thing but we are creating our definitions of what those things are right now because we are prefiguring. “ - Susan
“I imagine as ancestors that we would be able to be our most liberated selves, freest selves” - Trina
“The power part the idea of rematriation isn’t about returning land to indigenous people but returning indigenous people to the land...There is tension around reparations and land back, where there isn’t a tension between rematriation and reparations.” - Maya
Discerning Our soul tones
Your soul tone is your personal resonance and vibration. Your tone is just as unique as your fingerprint. What is your body’s chosen tone?
Click here to watch!
I am grateful for the beautiful sound inside my soul and the wisdom(s) my body holds. I am a….joy, love, peace, light, grace, trust, acceptance….being.
Adapted from "Ritual for Finding Your Soul Tones, Breedlove, Gina. The Vibration of Grace: Sound Healing Rituals for Liberation. Sounds True, 2023.
Soul-Fege
Click here to watch!
“When we suppress play, danger is often close at hand.”
- Sarah Lewis
Complexity, Shared Leadership & Power
Leadership is a fractal of vision, and fractals mirror the change we want to create (the small is a reflection of the large).
Complexity requires being in power with and power within. If complexity requires us to be in multi-stories and engaging multiple ways of knowing, we can’t be one person deciding what all the stories are.
Cynefin Framework by David Snowden
If we are being our being fully what it means to be human and humane and interdependently connected—how might we impact complex ecosystems to be in right relationship and flourishing?
Click here to watch!
“[
the word] ”Solve”. . .signals permanence, which is part of why people make a clear thing complicated. Whereas we might be saying what is the next wise action?” -
Trish
“I don’t believe in pathways but stepping stones.” - Sahana
“Cynefin is not a matrix, but a sense making tool that helps us understand how to respond the next right step. That there are
overlaps, places of portals.” - Barhet
“Coming back to community is how we humanize systems.” - Naim
Nature-Based Inquiry
What is being called for from your humanity (wellness)—in your context—in service of prefiguring the world we want/the future we want? Listen for the answer in nature, listen to the birds, watch the ants.
“I think what is needed of me is to see the clear layers that contribute to the complexity within myself and the world, and the interdependence that contributes to the complexity and makes the whole bigger than sum of the parts..” - Sahana
“My tree expressed the importance of looking within for answers/support because we are abundant beings. It also shared the importance of rest and to lay down - freedom dream.” - Paradyse
“Know my innate worth so I understand my sacred power. ”Esjay
Inner work
Innerwork means cultivating the sacred (our wellness, our intactness) at the fractal of people—individual and group—by being in the practices of healing and liberating. “Wellness” is when we are able to be with all the things the heartbreak & the joy, the grief and the possibility—in a resourced way.
REFLECTION
How are you bringing innerwork practices in your movement leadership and accompaniment? 1. What gets in the way? 2.
“Justice is jagged and imperfect.” -
Susan
If I am in myself, not present, aware of the love and the power I have inside me, that is in my body, not just my mind, then how am I connecting to my community that I need because that is the source of the power that I need? - Naim
“Home to me means for each of us to believe it is an understanding of our innate connection to source. When in alignment with home, we can’t do harm because we know what it means to be in connection with human and non human kin.” - Esjay
“Radical self care is prioritize going up stream against that innate need to be on all day because you ’ re honoring the people who don’t have ability to do what you do. Against grain of productivity. We deserve to sleep, laugh, win games. It is radical to say “I do deserve” even tho the people around me are suffering. I can be most effective when i am full. That fullness comes from radical self care. “ - Ashley
“One big piece of healing relationships is having intimacy for yourself and figure out your wounds to be able to be w/someone else.” - Amber
“Different people vibrate at different frequencies. What is the frequency you're vibing with spirit? Different than others frequencies. “ - Lil Milagro
multiple ways of knowing
Multiple ways of knowing includes the many ways we understand and engage with the world, such as through our experiences, art, ancestral and cultural wisdom, learning from the natural world as well as more rationalist approaches often overprivileged by dominant culture.
Practical Knowing
Previous actions
Generalized knowing into practice
Artistic Knowing
Creating representations through story, visual art, movement, music
Foundational Knowing
Experimental
Indigenous/Ancestral
Spiritual/Natural
Generalized Knowing
Experiments create concepts (academic theories, logic models, promising practices)
“Intellectualizing is important in age where books are banned and to be ignorant and stuck in ways is the way to be today.” - Naim
“Intimacy is a way of knowing with collaborative partners.”Jen REFLECTION
What ways of knowing do you bring on the regular? What kinds of multiple ways of knowing or IW are you feeling is being called forth in you to hold the complexity of LANDS?
feedback & generative tension
We tried on our conflict shapes (c/o Weyam Ghadban)—those we try on regularly, and those we aspire to.
Embracing generative tension a way to lean into LANDS, inner work, and more! What is the shape of your body in tension? Try on a new shape that corresponds to the one you want to practice.
“I want to hold space for the messy, hard work that is so central to the work we need to do together to imagine justice.” - Lil Milagro
Embracing our emotions WITHIN OUR conflict shapes
We worked with our emotions, deepening our awareness of how they show up in our go-to conflict stances and those stances we aspire to, so that we can be at choice in how we show up in conflict.
Four Emotions
Mad: Anger/Frustration/Annoyance
What value of mine is being violated? What basic need of mine or of someone I care about is not being met?
Sad: Grief/Disappointment
What am I longing for?
Egad: Fear/Concern/Worry
What’s really at risk here? Is this a paper tiger or a real tiger?
Glad: Joy/Relief/Release/Being Seen
What feeling of relief, release or being seen is present or possible here?
“I love thinking about sadness as connecting and flow. I feel like there is a tendency to push away sadness and reject it if it shows up. I felt what’s powerful is to give it space and honor it.” - Asha
“Grief isn’t linear, I feel deep gratitude for it because there’s a recognition for the capacity for love.” - Esjay
“Conflict is a sign that you want to go deeper in a relationship.” - Unknown via Amber
Experimentation
Experimentation supports people to strategically and systematically move forward in emergence and complexity by offering a lightweight structure and approach to support iterative, innovative learning.
WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE, FEEL LIKE, BE LIKE?
Not invasive or extractive
Creative and expansive
It takes rigor…like art, like life
We played our way into our experiments, creating question trees, and embracing experiments that felt like they could actually change something!
Play supports us to release—release our limitations, inhibitions, pre-conceived notions of what is and what is possible. It is a release that deepens our connections to ourselves, our spirit, each other, our spirits, our possibility. Play is...
“Doing something without a designated destination”Ashley
“Not structure or strategy.” - Maya
“Something that brings your inner child joy.” - Ada
HOW MIGHT I/WE...
How might we explore the intersections between the wants and needs of the individual with the project of collective liberation? - Sage
How might I act from a place of possibility and grounded power to manifest weaving liberation? - Susan
How might I transform Black romantic love as a tool towards Black futuristic, wholistic community? - Amber
How might we humanize systems? - Naim
moving With & Through
MU-I TAIJI 10
STEP PRACTICE
Being in practice together, moving and breathing synchronously, coregulating, connects us to power with and power within to thrive and flow.
“We are at our most powerful and most settled selves when we are moving together. Whatever gets in the way of that, we have to reorganize ourselves.” - Trish
TAIJI WITH MUSIC
“How Deep is Your Love?” by PJ Morton, Led by Elissa
Click here to watch!
“Made for Me,” by Muni Long, Led by Trina “Birds outside are also music with a different energy. ” - Paradyse
Click here to watch!
COREGULATING FOR THRIVING: NEUROSOMATIC INTELLIGENCE
Everyone’s nervous system, similar to vocal cords, is completely unique. Practices like drumming, singing, and humming, found in so many cultures, regulate our nervous system so we are able to meet the moment intact. How are you in conversation with your nervous system? What would be possible if we collectively came from a regulated place?
“Humming is the pathway to regulate your nervous system and helps with your vagus nerve. As a child, that's how I got it. I have been humming forever.” - Trina
Threat Bucket
NSI Tools: Creating Your Tool Box
Foot Sensory
Tongue Circles
Straw Breathing
Tragus Pull
Chicken Stomping
Offers & Requests Requests
We invite you to reach out to each other—l and support one another.
Ashley - Accountability partner; ways to practice forgiveness; and check-in and relationship building partner.
Asha - If you are open to sharing any knowledge on humor, traditions, myths, or info and stories from yours or others ancestry that would be amazing. (e.g. like when lil shared about the trickster’s role in unsettling what we have been comfortable with or when another lab maker talked about laughter as a main way of survival for a certain group, the names of mythical trickers, etc). asha.h.mehta@gmail.com.
Amber - Synthesizing ideas, clarity on direction, and concrete strategic plan.
Sahana - To be part of a collective that can think, support, ideate, innovate together. Regular check-ins. Coaching session (one or two).
Jen - Virtual meetups (play, sing, check in on experiments), song lyrics and credit from Sage (if okay to sing elsewhere), and Elissa’s rundown of 10 step meaning.
Ada - To connect to anyone who wants to connect/be in conversation about my bigger vision/HMW question around free radical power building; for some accountability partnership related to two things: (1) My affirmations...that I got them down on paper, that they feel aligned and right sized and (2) Doing my affirmations daily - speaking them aloud out into the world and to myself.
Trina - Looking for a new coach & therapist; exploration and family compounds & homesteading; looking for a new office space in Compton (real estate agent)? Ideation & exploration around dual citizenship.
Naim - Looking for accountability.
Trish - Norma Wong ‘Art of War’ invite; Connection to funders/resource mobilizers (even within traditional institutions) who want to be in liberatory practice with other funders.
Lil - Fellowship circles post retreat, peer mentorship and collaboration, and monthly reading/book circle around inner work/leadership.
Maya - Accountability buddy for my experiment and generative conflict resources.
Sage - Free radical accountability space; Centering partnersopen to other modalities beyond generative somatics; Playlists/songs that support you towards LANDS; Ideas on how to build a practice of movement/dance.
Paradyse - Tips on recovering from burnout.
Susan - Introductions to people who: believe in and have practices around interdependence of human and non-human kin and are building power.
Offerings
Paradyse
Support with logistics or documentation
Maya
Youth / edu development consultation
Intro to queer ecology and frameworks for queer land based projects
Environmental justice and intersectional environmental education support
If you need someone to send Tik Toks to An ear if you wanna vent
Asha
Happy to offer a coaching session on your experiment, a listening ear to name and clear blocks or to champion and ask questions to bring more flesh to your vision
Jen
Antiracist coaching for white people in your worlds
As a governance team member, to listen to your ideas, experiences with change elemental and pass on the feedback
Take you out for a drink or meal in Atlanta
Naim
I offer support in listening to ideas; providing music and love for your art
Sage
Offer to mail physical copies of mixed metaphor learning deck and workbook
Song sharing circles monthly (?) quarterly (?)
Offer song leadership for movement training
Ada
A coffee/tea/dinner/happy hour date if you ’ re in or visiting oakland
Any peer coaching that might feel helpful
Any org development/transformation, strategy, etc. resources I have/have curated/have access to
Sahana
Share any organizational documents we have (anti racist & equity based)
A home if you want to visit (and dream, think, act, collaborate)
Can help organize the creation of a collective group
In person peacemaking circle training for folks. It’s a 2.5 day process. Minimum of 10 participants. At no cost <3
Other (from Asha to Ashley)
Nerd out on check-in and relationship building
Lil
Sharing (w/ permission) our staff handbook for our incomplete liberating infrastructure
Skill and resources sharing for making infrastructural change
Song sharing circles monthly (?) quarterly (?)
Trish
Offering connection to free/low cost liberatory coaching
Trish to Asha
Good one: a podcast about jokes
Trina
Interview on parenting for liberation podcast
Marco Polo video chats to stay in touch
Dancing, twerking, karaoke, turn up sessions on
Zoom/FaceTime
Innovation and ideation session
Susan Walking buddy for mornings (virtual or in NY)
Ashley
A compassionate listening ear
Data synthesis
Joy and laughter
closing ceremonies
“We are now bonded for life. - Ada
Click here to watch!
Click here to watch!
Click here to watch!
Learnings from the Lab
Remember you are not alone. There are networks to be weaved. Tend to those relationships
Staying connected to the rhythm of the land— sunrise/sunset through consistent rituals
Experimentation starting with How Might We
Deepening understanding of LANDS—regrounding in 5 elements
Spaciousness—sitting with mountains, trees, birds
10-step Taiji
Practicing/including song/sound
Practice joy
Practice generative conflict and bring it to teaming
Bringing in more of the elements, stories of the land, etc. into learning containers
When you can connect your analysis to your longing, to your gift, you get closer to liberatory practice
We have to sing together
Artistic work and better clarity on MWOK
Somatic practice
We need to connect joy and play into work, play -> ideate
This helped me find a different, clearer center for liberation work
Integrating more art practice in my day to day to increase play and integration
Sensemaking, complexity and along with limited versus liberating versions
Casting Forward
“I am feeling resourced because of the Prefiguring Futures Lab, which was hands down the best retreat and facilitation in my 20 years of non-profit work.”
Run with your experiments, revisit the deck, and reach out to those who signed up to support your journey! Continued connection by staying in touch on the Signal group and through the June 2024 Lab listserv (PFLJune24@ChangeElemental.org)!
Dive deep into the learnings and visit the Lab slide deck. Co-create offerings for the field to share our learning and practice.
Keep dancing and singing with us! Vibe with the Prefiguring Futures Lab collaborative playlist.
Engage with us as we plan for more 5-day experiences, a cohort experience, and as we work to find funding sources!
Look out for more communications from us and email PrefiguringFutures@ChangeElemental.org with questions!
Watch your mailboxes for these gifts to yourselves and eachother!
Affirmations & wishes
Ashley - Forgiveness is your way to liberation
Maya - Connection to source, power, ancestors, god… takes from the dysregulation and harmful illusion/lie of individualism to the abundant possibility and hope of collective
Amber - Change is constant. I am change. As i move towards my vision of the future that I want in service of others, that is growth and that growth will push others toward change
Susan - Life, work by the 4 seasons, create space for play, joy Paradyse - “Time is its own character.” - ESP. Be okay with the unknown.
Sage - There is infinite wisdom and connection to source individually and collectively
Jen - We are artists. We are trees. We are love. We stretch. We live. Our dreams matter. Your heart is a gift and a gem.
Lil Milagro - What I want to remember from this space is that the idea of joy, play, and ancestral knowledge are a necessary part of the decolonial liberating work. Well that, and 10 step! In solidarity, lil
Barhet - Invite artistic ways of knowing as a liberating practic. The connection of my root/core with my sound.
Alison - Dear one, your presence required preparation. Thanks to your ancestors, the joy you bring, and the wisdom you sing out. Try that bold experiment bringing you closer to your truth dream.
Asha - What you pay attention to grows, pay attention to humor. Love her, get to know her, get curious. Invite her into all the spaces of your life at her discernment; she is a window into the divine energy, a portal, a medicine. She has taken a unique shape in your life because of the wisdom, courage, and creativity of your ancestors. She is a doorway to your greater purpose.
Ada - When I feel a sense of clarity in a moment of fogginess… When I feel certainty in a moment of doubt… When I sense the answer or right next step at times I feel directionless… that is my reminder that I am always dialed into my source/ancestor frequency. I just need to slow down and listen.
Trish - We are still children in the process of evolution and play!
Esjay - Remember: there are so many people committed to and doing what needs to be done. (Remember the folks at the lab).
Sahana - The power within and power with is limitless. Source is outside of me. Remember the liberatory vs. limiting versions. And how source is connected to MWOK. I belong and we belong.
Naim - Spirit comes, it transforms dreams into reality. Pushing us toward liberation and freedom dreams. Power in source.
Trina - Honor the dream longing within…
Stay in touch! ATTENDEE LIST
Name Affiliation
Ada Palotai
Alison Lin
StarLions Collective
Change Elemental
Amber Walker Safety Bound
Asha Mehta small waves rising
Ashley Bernal ProInspire
Barhet Woldermariam Center for Race and Culture
Elissa Sloan Perry Change Elemental
Esjay Lafayette
The Pride Center of Edmonton
Jen Willsea Independent Facilitator & Liberatory Power Consulting Group
Leslie Cao Change Elemental
Name Affiliation
Lil Milagro Henriquez Mycelium Youth Network
Maya Salsedo Mycelium Youth Network
Naim Rasul AMAAD Institute
Natasha Winegar Change Elemental
Paradyse Oakley Parenting for Liberation
Sage Crump National Performance Network
Sahana Parameswara Gateway Association
Susan Misra Aurora Commons
Trina Greene Parenting for Liberation
Trish Adobea Tchume Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
This Memory Book was collaboratively developed and designed by Naima Yael Tokunow and Natasha Winegar with support from Alison Lin and Leslie Cao