HOPEFUL FUTURES Zine by Doorway Project x UW Honors College x unhoused youth voices
WHAT ARE HOPEFUL FUTURES?
About the project When you dream of the future, what does it look like? What are your hopes and aspirations? How would you create a better society? This Zine delves into these questions through the lens of youths experiencing houselessness in Seattle. A collaboration between the Doorway Project; University of Washington undergraduates in "Honors 231:Abolishing Poverty: Shelter, Mutual Aid & Care"; and unhoused teens and young adults, we aim to collectively imagine and create a brighter future for all. Some through-lines of our hopeful future are: "Who am I?": Acceptance, Perception, Joy, and Love Survival and Liberation Human Life & Meaning Change
Our goals T hrough this 'Zine, we aim to change the narrative of houselessness. Popular stories often focus solely on the pain and suffering of poverty, while the future is shaped by those empowered. This work pushes back by capturing unsheltered youths’ firsthand perspectives and uplifting aspects of their lives. We hope the ‘Zine can foster conversations and awareness, so the broader Seattle community may begin seeing and treating our unsheltered neighbors from a place of dignity and mutual aid. This means growing beyond a "charity" mindset, rejecting harmful myths, and learning from and helping each other bidirectionally.
W H O
A M
A C C E P T A N C E ,
I ?
P E R C E P T I O N ,
J O Y ,
&
L O V E
SURVIVAL & LIBERATION
I am a second-year student studying Public Health at the University of Washington. One of my favorite hobbies is making music playlists. Music allows me to express myself and connect with others. It helps me unwind and step back from the world around me. Music pushes me to new limits, allowing me to feel, reflect, and imagine. This playlist is a culmination of songs that I believe provide an audible representation of what liberation means. This is what liberation means to me: Scan on Spotify to listen! Track List: 1. Mad, Solange ft. Lil Wayne 2. Colonizer, Tune-Yards 3. Ali r u ok?, M.I.A 4. Mexican Chef, Xenia Rubios 5. Out The Window, Lo Village 6. Rainforest, Noname 7. Libre, Y La Bamba 8. Freedom Is Free, Chicano Batman 9. Revolution (Pts. 1 and 2), Nina Simone 10. i, Kendrick Lamar
What does liberation mean to you?
JP LOPEZ - UW Student
Chief Si'ahl
HUMAN
LIFE &
MEANINGS
Life: given, in a million different moments. Mother’s womb. Food, nourishing little bellies. Guiding hands. Opportunities. Intergenerational wealth. Supportive words. Care. Life: taken, in a million different ways. The violence of hands, the violence of a tongue. Criminalized survival. Social safety net slashed open. Unaccepted identities. Racism. I am a student at the University of Washington, with a roof over my head, and financial security. What separates me from my friend on the streets? My journey has been filled with few life-taking structures and experiences, and many life-giving moments. The lottery of birth. That is all. Imagine a world where our life journeys were not shaped by inequality, but rather shaped by our goals and hopes. “What happens to a dream deferred?” Langston Hughes asked. What would happen if the world didn’t defer dreams? What would this world look like?
Alina Chandra - UW Student
CHANGE new beginnings, courage, imagination
What is change? By Espen Danielle James
Change is acklnowledging issues Change is uncomfortable Change is always happening Change isn't always negative Change is necessary for growth and self-presence Change is unpredictable Change isn't just for certain people Change is for all Change is creating a fresh start and a new, better state of mind Change is beneficial Change is scary Change can be life-changing Change can make people feel weak or powerless Change is a part of life That is what change is
On Change and Abolition
By Emily, a UW student
I am a woman studying Molecular Biology at the University of Washington. For several years I have studied cells, the smallest forms of life. Meanwhile, recently I have been challenged to think about one of the biggest problems of our region: the housing crisis. I thought my prior ways of thinking would be useless for this issue. My conversations with youth experiencing houselessness and studying abolition in housing justice have taught me that people and cells aren’t so different after all. Change runs through life at all scales. Change can break us down. Something good and routine, like a cell dividing to renew our skin, can suddenly abuse its power. Taking over the rightful territories and life blood of others, one cell can amass into a tumor that harms all. Like cancer, the history of houselessness is a story of how the priorities of some were unrightfully imposed upon the entire system until it broke. Houselessness was born from the tearing down of Indigenous ways of life and racial practices that led to impoverishment and dispossession. Yet change can also build us up. In the womb, our pluripotent (“many potential”) cells mature into neurons or muscle fibers, morphing into different shapes and taking on specialized roles to keep the body system running. Like a pluripotent cell or a seed growing from a fallen nurse tree, abolition presents a way for change to transform the old into the new. Abolitionist change is not just about breaking down the system that created harms. Instead, it builds upon the past to create fresh beginnings. Abolition draws from imagination. Rather than naivete, abolitionists demonstrate courage as we imagine a better world and take incremental steps to create it. Students within my UW class collaborated to create a visual representation of the world that we imagine.
This is a world in which: WE MAY BREAK THE LINK BETWEEN POWER AND PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER, BE ONE ANOTHER'S MEDICINE, AND SAVE EACH OTHER'S LIVES THERE IS FINANCIAL FREEDOM FROM "SETTLING" FOR UNFULFILLING WORK AND LABOR THE SAVIOR COMPLEX IS ELIMINATED AND REPLACED WITH ADVOCACY ENVIRONMENTAL BEAUTY AND RESOURCES ARE GIVEN NOURISHMENT TO RENEW AND THRIVE OUR DREAMS WILL TRANSFORM THE IDEAS OF THE CAPITOL EVERYONE MAY DREAM HUMANS WILL BALANCE SELF-AWARE REFLECTIONS WITH MINDFULNESS AND ACCEPTANCE
Emily, UW 2022
1000 Years Ago The year is 3022. They say that our ancestors saw color Not that the sky is blue, But by skin that somehow differentiates me and you. If seeing meant destruction, Then I’m scared of what I’d find If seeing meant segregation, Then I’d rather go blind. The year is 3022. A lot has changed from the past. Forgiveness has been sought through reparations, Such as giving land back. - Pavithra Prabhu UW Student
Self-Love, Joy, Weed, etc By Lucia (UW student) After seeing JP’s playlist, I was inspired to make a playlist too. Here it is (you can scan the code with your phone):
This topic is rather broad, and when brainstorming for it, I thought of several related social movements. One is the Fat Liberation movement, another is the Black Joy movement, another is the Legal Marijuana movement. Some other movements related to these are the Body Positivity movement, the Body Neutrality movement, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
(Sidenote: a lot of these overlap and are very similar). When asked the question, Who are you?, there are many ways to respond. Some people might say a human, or a woman, or a fat woman, or a fat Black woman. Others might say that they’re till figuring it out, that they’re a stoner, or a non-binary person. Still others will talk about their interests and passions. One reason why I included Fat Liberation and Black Joy in this is because they were concepts that the youth alluded to in their works, and there are many misconceptions surrounding them. For instance, the modern-day Body Positivity movement grew out of the Fat Liberation movement, but today it is often co-opted by straight-sized (non-fat) white women pushing out their bellies to make rolls or talking about how it’s okay to have insecurities. While pretty much every woman has experienced body shaming and some level of personal body image issues, being made fun of and discriminated against for being fat is different from being thin because anti-fatness is a systemic form of oppression, and skinny-shaming is not. Nobody should be shaming anyone for having a certain body type, but the reality is that anti-fatness kills people and is of a vastly different caliber. In fact, being underweight and having anorexia is actually more likely to kill you than being fat and having binge eating disorder, however it is also possible to be fat and anorexic. Anorexia actually has the highest fatality rate of any mental disorder, but with the way being thin is celebrated in the media you would not think it (Hamilton). Medical fatphobia, which included bias, discrimination and harassment within the medical field is often deadly to fat people. Oftentimes when fat people go to the doctor, the doctor won’t treat them for what they came in for and will simply tell them to lose weight. This can lead to not wanting to go to the doctor, meaning that the doctors won’t find cancers, infections, diseases, etc that need to be treated. Also, oftentimes the medical equipment such as blood pressure cuffs, needles, MRI scans, seats, lifts, etc that hospitals use are not built to fit fat people. For instance, I heard a story where the doctors told a fat woman that because she couldn’t fit the hospital's MRI machine, she should go to the Zoo to get it done. Additionally, it should be noted that anti-fatness has direct roots in white supremacy, capitalism, and the patriarchy. For more background information on the origins of fatphobia, you can read “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia” by Sabrina Springs. The fact that being thin and white is considered the beauty standard for women is not by accident: it was constructed so intentionally to monstorize curvier Black women and glorify thinness and white femininity. Then, with the start of the fat liberation movement in the 1960s, it was predominantly Fat women, especially Fat Black women paving the way for everyone else.
In addition to medical fatphobia, another issue is fatphobia within the fashion industry. While some might scoff at this and think it’s just about having cute clothes to wear, it goes beyond that. Most in-person, brick and mortar stores don’t offer much, if any, plus size clothing. If fat people can’t find a warm winter coat, winter boots, a bathing suit, workout clothes, underwear and bras, etc that fit, then they cannot take part in activities that they probably want to do. For example, my friend and I were recently searching for plus size swimwear, and it was much harder and more expensive than I anticipated. Additionally, many of the brands that did carry it only went up to 2X or 3X. That is not size inclusive! There is no reason for fashion companies to not include extended sizes besides the fact that many designers don’t design for a wide range of body types and that they prefer fat people to not wear their clothes. If you are a poor fat person, it is even harder to find plus size clothing that you can afford. This can also be especially bad if you are unhoused, since so much plus size clothing is online-only and if you don’t have an address, you won’t have anywhere to send your winter coat to. As with race, gender, and sexuality, there is also an intersection with fatness and houselessness. Also, I do want to mention that very very fat people, those size 6X and above, face much more anti-fatness and discrimination than smaller fat folks. While someone my size (around US Women’s 14/16/18) will experience some amount of fatphobia, it is nowhere even near what someone who is a 6X will face. Another related movement is Black Joy (also Fat Joy and/or Fat Black Joy). These movements are vital because so many times, Black stories that are shown in the media are just about the struggle with systemic racialized oppression. While this is definitely part of the experience of Black people in America and elsewhere, it is by no means the only thing the media should be representing. There should be positive media representation of Black people and Fat people, but more often than not there isn’t. For instance, think of Black characters, Fat characters and Fat Black characters in your favorite TV shows, movies, books, etc. Are they dynamic characters or flat? Are they only there for comedic effect? Are they the main character’s funny best friend? Do they have their own story arc? Are they shown experiencing joy or is it just their struggle? If you can’t think of many or any, why? This can be devastating for young kids growing up, because they have no one they can relate to in what they’re watching. Or, if there is representation, it is of the funny fat friend, or the Black best friend, which shows them that they aren’t worth being a main character. Being a part of a marginalized group doesn’t mean you are always sad and struggling-- in fact, existing in a marginalized body is revolutionary. However, the happy parts are often not shown in the media. Black joy specifically has to do with the fact that even in dark times of living in a white supremacist society, “Black people still find a way to laugh and love” (Malone). According to Malone, “Black joy is about affirming one’s beautiful life. Black joy rejects the pathology of racism. Black joy is being fully human. Black joy is pride. Black joy is self-love. Black joy is shining bright. Black joy is living your best life despite living in a racist world setup against your very being”. For once, it would be nice to have stories in TV and Film that feature fat characters, Black characters, and Fat Black characters just living their life. Just like the intersection between race and being unhoused, there is also an intersection between being unhoused and being fat. According to Da’Shaun Harrison, “Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat and they’re more likely to experience homelessness”. They are also less likely to have access to supports that they need, such as plus size clothing, fat-friendly chairs and beds, plus size winter gear, and more. Because fat people are discriminated against within the medical field, if they even are able to access healthcare, they will not receive a good quality of it. Overall, it is important to recognize how these are all overlapping, interconnected issues. We are all tied together, and our liberation must be collective, because we cannot have freedom for some people and not for all.
Lucia Olt
UW student