To Those That Critically Dream
This is a letter celebrating the organizations, groups, and people that I feel are doing amazing work as critical dreamers in this moment. There's a distinct difference between dreamers and critical dreamers and I articulate that difference in the previous essay you can find here. In short, critical dreamers are the ones who balance an understanding of the past with a promising and active gaze toward the future. Critical dreamers are essential to creating and sustaining a healthy and accountable democracy as we move away from ideas and systems that do not benefit the whole of the populous.
But, on the back of this I come to you fairly hesitant to celebrate them. I’m looking to celebrate them critically and thoughtfully, and I have to say that because there are some publications who celebrate without thoughtfulness. Some work only to increase the social capital and perceived goodness of an organization without actively holding them accountable to their work and goals.
Charlotte, especially after the Chetty ‘50 out of 50' report (and the subsequent opportunity task force created in response), is now chock full of organizations working to do good for those in the community. They’ve come and they’ve gone ad nauseum for the past 6 years. I don’t think the best and most substantial argument is that we need less groups working to do good, instead I think we need more accountability for the organizations we do have. What makes some organizations more than just a drop in the ever growing sea of non-profits, tasks forces, and change agents, are the ways in which they hold accountability as one of their main goals, and not just an auxiliary checkpoint.
I, as an independent party would like to raise up these collectives that have motivated me to dream larger both through and with the City that I live in. These organizations range from journalist collectives to change agents to institutes within higher education. They are diverse, yes, but they all share one foundational precept which has allowed me to bring them together in this way, and it is that of a commitment to critical and inclusive change.
Media 2070 is an extension of Free Press and defines itself as “ a growing consortium of media-makers and activist collectively dreaming reparative policies, interventions, and futures.” Along side their necessity as a collective they have also released an essay that details the history of the U.S. Media’s participation in anti-black racism and harm. Blending collectivity collaboration and education is only one of the reasons why I think this organization will continue to do great things. What I believe makes the group even more iconoclastic is the fact that it states, squarely and firmly, that it welcomes feedback. Aside from recognizing itself as organization, it’s aware of the importance of narrative. More, it recognizes that the narrative it creates with it’s work is just as important as the work being done.
In an interview with Muckrack the collective stated that they chose 2070 in recognition of the history of uprisings surrounding journalism that occur about every 50 years. Alicia Bell states “In 1919, it was the Chicago Commission that was naming the role journalism played in race riots, in 1968 it was the Kerner Commission that was naming the role that journalism used and media played in perpetuating racial inequity, and her we are 50 years later, kind of working on creating launching this project and in 2020. We’re honoring that every 50 years there is a reckoning.” This is a radical example of both, stepping into the history that we exist in, while actively taking it and using as a foundation for the future that we dream.
Media 2070 reminds us that within dreaming lies the responsibility to recognize the harm and trauma of the past that makes the dream necessary in the first place. There’s something excessively American about the language of the dream that asks you to forget the past and only look towards the future. This form of forgetting is commonplace in the American imagination and is passed off as healthy, but it is in fact the foundation for much of the erasure we see today.
These are all great things, but of course we have to ask how do we hold the group accountable? Well, Media 2070 on their website has a list of answers under the ‘How Will We Know We’re Winning’ section. These range from something as substantial as media-reparations legislation, all the way to solidarity between activist within different industries. It seems they recognize that this will take time, but it can only be accomplished if we think flexibly and collectively.
Another group of critical dreamers is the Charlotte chapter of the League of Creative Interventionist. They are a fellowship program for change agents and activist in cities across the country that provide funds for projects that support various neighborhoods and communities . Their manifesto speaks more to their mission than I could:
although the newest class of the charlotte chapter is working to address homelessness, the erasure of brown communities, and community empowerment through journaling, in the past they’ve worked on things ranging from economic displacement to herbal access and food deserts. Many (and I do mean many) organizations in Charlotte are working on these same things but for me what makes LoCI particular is the specificity of their work being grounded in particular neighborhoods. They articulate a new possibility of radicality in the way that they displace the importance of the fellow and center the importance of the community that they represent or work out of. Often we hear and see used the bland and broad language of “community” that really has no substantial grounding or worth, but with LoCI we witness what community can mean, and watch it actually come alive. The way we hold the League of Creative Interventionist accountable is through the communities they serve. The power of feedback and success lies not in the hands of grant writers and boards of directors, but instead the people they will work with, impact, and collaborate with every day.
Last, but not least I want to celebrate The UNCC Urban Institute. It may seem odd and even questionable for me to consider an institution as a critical dreamer, but hear me out. At the base of much of the work being done today are studies that have made even some of the staunches skeptics into firm believers of systemic oppression and discrimination. Without the reports and findings some would see our experiences as little more than prejudiced he-say-she-say. Part of the beauty of dreaming is the ability to take what we have to aggressively new heights, and sometimes even into radically new directions. Although the studies and findings aren’t always attractive or sensational, their work of setting the foundation and giving rise to new dreams is what’s important.
They are probably the most dedicated and well-versed publication at the moment giving up-to-date news on transportation in and around Charlotte. Transportation is only one facet of their focus though, they are also pre-occupied with social mobility, environmentalism and even homelessness. They usually address these, not individually, but instead in tandem, articulating a framework in which each of these come together to create a healthy and vibrant city. You can find their article on the possibility of changes post-covid here, and you can find their work on what transportation may look like in the coming years here. What speaks to me most though, is the possibility of walkability and it’s ways of increasing social mobility.
Walkability may not be a thing on anyone's minds in the south, especially not Charlotte, where the car still reigns supreme. Yet, with the addition of the light rail and the ever growing national focus on gas emissions and global warming, we can look to what type of walkability we want for Charlotte and use the studies as a foundation to dream a new healthier city. Granted, even the most vigorous celebrators of walkability here in Charlotte recognize it’ll take decades for us to get there, but in spite of that we still can look towards what that might look like with the help of the city’s urban institute.
History is not only an important part of dreaming but also an important part of narrative. all of these organizations directly consider the history that has brought us to this present moment. The dream of flourishing is important, absolutely, but within our dreams of flourishing we need to understand that the dream of repair lies at the bedrock of that. We are always looking forward, we should always be working to undo harm — when we re-imagine what our cities look like it not out of nothing, it is out of the beautiful work that many communities filled with activist and elders have already done. Our history tells the narratives of their work, those known and unknow, and we continue to bring that forward as we continue to dream thoughtfully and critically.
Were always the subjects of cross pollination. We hear and learn from our very different circles that we navigate in and through. What has motivated me most during this time is the healthy and necessary form of collaboration that I’ve seen. Contrary to popular belief, Charlotte is full of action, advocacy, institutions and vibrant communities. I think one of the things we overlook so often when we begin to dream is how all of these different organizations can come together and support one another and escape their Silos. The difficulty and complexity of this might deter some but It’s complexity is what shows how necessary it is and how fruitful it’s success can be. We become accountable to our collaborators, and our collaborators become accountable to us. When we begin to dream and imagine what our city might look like in 50 years, we can only say we are on the right path when we look not only towards the future with critical love, but to the ways were undoing harm with love as well. We may not all have the imagination we need for that, but until then, I think the groups listed above are offering us a possible framework for to begin to radically dream.
