New York Amsterdam News Black Future News

Imagining our Future, Today

By DAMASO REYES AND ALICIA BELL JUNETEENTH 2023

If there was a display of beautiful art on any street corner and the art was free, most people would take a piece of art and place it somewhere in their lives.

If there were a pop-up bookstand full of inspiring, visionary, informative books in front of any local grocery store, the books would likely be gone by the end of the day, and people would be reading or planning to read them.

If one day, in mailboxes everywhere, there was a verified step-by-step blueprint for ways that anyone, across race, gender, etc., could change their living conditions and tap into community resources, many more people would be taking action to make that change.

Journalism can be all of that.

But today, most of it’s not.

So for now, we’ll refer to the kind of journalism that takes you from the past to the future with facts, insights, and possible visions from the future as speculative journalism.

Speculative journalism is a derivative of speculative fiction, a writing genre that teeters on the lines of fantasy, dystopia, utopia, and science fiction by combining history, folklore, contemporary social issues, and visions of a distant future.

Some of the most masterful speculative fiction authors and artists include Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, W.E.B. DuBois,

and Sun Ra. Speculative journalism exists as kinfolk in their lineage and our colleagues at Media 2070 and Media Justice have been playing in public with speculative journalism ever since they first co-hosted Black Narrative Power Month, inviting folks to share #BlackFutureHeadlines

In order to create a new, more just world, we must first be able to imagine that world. This project goes back and forth in time using pieces of speculative journalism by our contributors which link to pieces of journalism from the archives of the New York Amsterdam News. We felt it was important to remind ourselves and our community of our rich history as we continue the long tradition of creating bold new worlds where we are treated justly.

This collection of speculative fiction is free from the chains of traditional journalism and allows us to visit a world, nearly 50 years in the future, where collective ownership and action help to ensure that everyone is treated humanely. But this world, just like our current one, and the one of our ancestors documented by the articles from our archives, still struggle with the legacies of slavery and oppression.

Throughout this edition of the Amsterdam News, you’ll experience various iterations of speculative journalism. Our hope is that the time you spend here grounds you in the thick and juicy richness of our history while it pulls you further into vision, hope, possibility, and the action necessary to build the kind of community power we need.

This special insert of the Amsterdam News is published in partnership with The Black Future Newsstand, a collaboration between The Black Thought Project and Media 2070. Learn more at blackfuturenewsstand.com and visit amsterdamnews.com

“I Am From My Mother” - Local Neighbor Tisha Yeye Wins Global Essay Contest

By COLLETTE WATSON ORUN-RERE DISTRICT JUNETEENTH 2070

“ ‘Where are you from?’ they asked. I’m from the Nile River Delta. And the Mississippi River Delta. And all the Black Rivers. I’m from my mama. I’m from the future. And I am from time immemorial. My ancestors originated in the place we call Afrika, along with every other being on Earth. As time and necessity had it, we moved, again and again. Across land bridges that are no more. Across manmade bridges that are no more. Migrating. Like honey bees and butterflies on silken wings.”

“No one asks where you’re from now. We only ask, ‘Where are you going?’ Because we are all trusted in the understanding that we’re going to

where we need to be.”

This is an excerpt from the grand prize winning essay, “I Am From My Mother,” written by 50-year-old Atabey LaTisha Yeye, born in the year 2020 and now an elder in the Old USA, affectionately known to her communal area as Tisha. She remembers a time before the Reorganization when people commonly greeted each other with the query, “Where are you from?”

“The Reorganization seems like a distant memory now, but there was a time when it completely transformed life here on Earth. There were too many guns and people were using them to keep each other behind invisible lines called ‘borders’ [pronounced BORE-durrs]. Then climate change brought such a rise in sea-levSee MY MOTHER on page 6

SHOEMAKING TOOLS

By ALYSSA BARDGE JUNETEENTH 2070

Sweetness dwells underneath my palms

Gentle and easeful when needed

By touch and nature,

Reaching out, caressing like the lavender swaying in the fields

God makin’ herself known in the colors we rarely see

Like the chosen kinship between Shug and Celie

Between fire and water

Red and blue

Green and yellow

Black and brown

Mixing into something deeper than underground

And higher than Jupiter, Mercury, and infinity.

Broken down and ground, Anchored at the souls of my feet. This is a discovered invitation

Found by concealing my face, the longing in my eyes

And turning my back with my arms outstretched

Wandering and wondering about the abstractions, Constructions, inherent instructions

Of living life with this particular classification of soil-toned skin, Asking the stars:

What kind of flowers did Granny lay with when she realized she was the Earth?

What kind of trees does she grow?

Does she know she feels just like the Autumn wind?

What is this quiet strength that dwells behind my tongue?

I know that I am made up of many things, Known and unknown

Not among most but somehow in the midst, in the air,

in the footsteps and fingerprints

Stained of red clay

Scented with tobacco leaves

Ivory tusks transformed into black wrists

Gripping extension cords mimicking cracked whips Decorated with Pandora charm bracelets and mauve-painted fingertips.

I am made up of many things like engrained pathological responses to harshness

Like crying out in the silence of the dark Or cringing at the taste of salt water dripping from my own face. Things that are familiar like mundanity and false realities, Lies and corruptions

Hypocrisies that almost act as if it is a tragedy to my identity, Subconsciously rejecting the notion that

I am the sole reason for my circumstances and man-made poverty,

That I would be better off stretching my arms out to the slave master’s tools

I am in search of something that is beyond our definition of abstraction.

I want handwritten recipes and holistic materials and remedies

Because all I know is that burgundy wine and dark skin men with the nappiest of roots soothe me.

Tobacco leaves filled with peoplepleasing tendencies and trauma responses get burned

Taken up to the head and blown out into the wind, Cradled by yellow hands carrying me back home.

I am in search of Granny’s shoemaking tools.

Cover Portrait by Amtah Naazim

Layout Design by StephGil

HeaddressGoddess,by Ingrid Yuzly Mathurin

Black reparations movement presses on with its demands

By Kenneth Meeks Special to the AmNews August 15, 1992

In the midst of the 500th anniversary of the so-called "discovery of America," there's a growing international movement in the African and African-American communities calling for reparation payments to African people for the historical injustices wrought on them and for their enslavement in the United States.

In Africa, a small group of diplomats, academics, and intellectuals forming the nucleus to an international campaign have been drumming up support calling for America to pay various African countries (and Nigeria in particular) for enslaving their people.

Elombe Brath, a leading New York Black activist and historian, said this issue has been around for several years but has picked up renewed momentum when African officials raised the issue last year.

One suggestion for reparations would be to cancel all financial debts owed the United States by African and Caribbean nations, a debt ranging in the billions of dollars.

and its legislation.

There are several historical precedents for reparations payments from one nation or people to another.

Indeed, this country has a his tory of repaying races of people for historical ills, dating back to 1971 when the American government paid $1 billion plus 44 million acres of land to Alaska natives for land settlements that were wrongly taken away from them by the U.S. government in the 1800s and before.

How the Movement for Reparations Inspired Hope

By TREVOR SMITH JUNETEENTH 2070

Almost 50 years ago, amid the 21st-century resurgence of the Black-led reparations movement, the now-defunct Pew Research Center released a survey that found over 70% of Black people supported reparations, but only 7% of Black people believed it would happen in their lifetime. Activists at the time described this phenomenon as the “hope gap,” as it illuminated the utter lack of belief that the federal government would ever provide redress to Black people across the country.

More recently in 1990, the U.S. government paid Japanese Americans $1.2 billion, or $20,000 for each person placed in the American concentration camps during World War II.

That same year, Austria paid $25 million to Holocaust survivors who had made claims against that country.

Even in 1952, Germany paid $822 million to Holocaust survivors in a German-Jewish settlement reached shortly after World War II.

The point is that precedents have been set for repaying particular ethnic groups for ills done to them. Between 1980 and 1986, the U.S. paid over $261.3 million to five different Native American tribes for the atrocity and genocide done them since the 1936 U.S.-Indian Treaty.

In 1980 the American government paid $105 million to the Klamaths of Oregon. In 1985, the government paid $105 million to the Sioux of South Dakota, $12.3 million to the Seminoles of Florida; $31 million to the Chippewas of Wisconsin, and in 1986, $32 million to the Ottawas of Michigan.

Yet, the United States government has paid nothing (repeat nothing!) to African people for enslaving and brutalizing them for over three hundred years.

When HR 40 was passed in 2030, the belief that reparations were possible amongst the Black community stood at 55%. When the first federal reparations policies were enacted in 2034, the belief that reparations policies were possible stood at 90%.

Somehow, advocates were able to enact a policy solution that was not only deeply

Examining this movement and how it both inspired and harnessed the hope of Black people will be significantly critical for continuing to implement reparations policies and create a racially just world.

THE UPRISINGS OF 2020

On May 25, 2020, a Black man named George Floyd was arrested for the possible use of a counterfeit $20 bill. One of the arresting officers, Derek Chauvin, shoved his knee into the back of Floyd for close to nine minutes until Floyd stopped breathing. The deadly encounter sparked mass protests against police brutality and anti-Blackness across the globe. The clarion call that Black lives matter reverberated in streets from Oslo to Harlem as thousands of people took to the streets in protests that lasted for months in some cities.

While reparations were not a central call of the 2020 uprisings, the increased attention on racial inequality, anti-Blackness, and the carceral system in conjunction with the fallout of the Trump presidency and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 created an opening within our national discourse on race that the reparations movement graciously stepped into.

On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed a bill into law that made Juneteenth the 11th holiday officially recognized by the federal government and cemented an annual reminder that this country still had much reckoning to do.

AN INTERCONNECTED AND INTERSECTIONAL MOVEMENT APPEARS

unpopular amongst a small and vocal minority of the U.S. public, but also reinvigorated a Black population that had no faith in a legal system that had let them down time and again.

How was this possible in a deeply partisan country where anti-Blackness ran rampant for over 400 years? Over the last half-century, the movement for reparations strategically built power across progressive movements and tied the story of reparations as the key to unlocking true healing across society. It ushered forth what many now consider a Third Reconstruction and transformed a culture deeply rooted in violence and individualism into one rooted in care and community.

With more funding, sustained organizing, and increased exposure to the topic, support for reparations steadily increased across the country. Culturally, there was a crucial turning point; perhaps the most critical moment, at least within the cultural context, came when HBO, a legacy, corporately controlled media outlet, released their epic series “Reconstruction” in 2024, which told the fictional story of how the country would look in the 21st century if the era immediately after the Civil War was successful. The show portrayed the true story of Hiram Revels, the first Black person elected to the United States Senate, and fictionalized accounts of Black people gaining political, economic, and social power.

By showing what the world would look like if formerly enslaved people were given the 40 acres as the federal government promised them, the show simultaneously inspired hope that a progressive pro-Black society was attainable and pushed the movement to think critically about where

See REPARATIONS on page 8

"The U.S. government owes Africa money for robbing the continent of its people and enslaving them," said Brath, "and we're going to make sure they pay for what they've done."

Brath and other Black leaders are suggesting that African-Americans support the ''reparations movement"

Pres. Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth at a White House Meeting Oct. 29, 1864

In Future Color

BY ETENG ETTAH JUNETEENTH 2070

“The People’s Garden,” a new half-hour comedy series, has burst onto the scene and into our devices with stellar ratings and reception. Breathing new life and levity into the ways we consider how our communi ties are nourished, the fresh man series follows the antics and shenanigans of a group of Black teens in Bed-Stuy, in the self sustaining communi ty of Brooklyn, who inherit their housing cooperative’s decades-old community rooftop garden. As the au dience, we find ourselves rooting for Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim, the show’s pro tagonists, as they navigate adolescence and emerg ing adulthood; their ev er-changing relationships to one another; and their newfound role as the com munity’s lead gardeners. They are determined to put their own twist on how the garden is run in order to cement their own lega cies in their neighborhood.

The cultivating crew’s hijinks always stem from concocting new ways to get their neighbors excit ed and involved in growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and more to feed one an other and sustain the gar dening practices of those before them. In the show’s pilot episode, “Pot It,” the green gang officially names their garden “Herbland'' to attract both young kids, who might mistake it for a new amusement park, as well as elder marijana users, who might be interested in reserving their own personal plots to grow cannabis.

While initially both groups of prospective gardeners quickly and hilariously catch on to Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim’s scheme to get more hands on deck, the episode culminates with a beautifully touching display of intergenerational learning. In “Ivy Intrigue,” Jaja gets a call from her grandmother, who lives on the top floor, that ivy vines from Herbland have begun covering her windows and blocking her skyline view. Following a comical trial and error montage of

the trio trying to come up with solutions that don’t require cutting the vines, they get landscapers to install shelving in between the building’s windows and muralists to paint a tribute to the garden, demonstrating

writers and producers. This show resonates so strongly because like Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim’s garden, it’s by its people. Behind the camera, the show’s writers have firsthand experience creating and

maintaining their own gardens in Bed-Stuy. Producers consider how those with many talents (i.e. craft service, costume design, hair and makeup, local sponsors, etc.) in Bed-Stuy can bring the show’s stories to light.

A rotating bench of local directors lean on their own experiences to collaboratively build the show’s expansive universe.

The show is housed within Wonder Productions, a panmedia production cooperative that utilizes a worker-first profit-sharing model to ensure

equitable compensation at all levels and departments. Its guiding mantra is that TV is a dynamic medium, one of many where all involved (writers, producers, actors, script supervisors, and directors) must automatically have all their material needs met, and have their talents, perspectives, and viewpoints welcomed and embraced. From story conception to broadcast, everyone involved in developing this visual art does so in an environment that is collaborative and fair.

TELEVISION: TO BUILD A BLACK IMAGE

urban Black, then and now, was derived from such misleading portrayals. Black militants were synonymous with hoodlums. Before long, the image overshadowed the reality.

Television is the most popular and powerful medium of communication in America. Its effects on the attitudes and opinions of viewers are far-reaching.

For this reason, various special interest groups (i.e. feminists, educators, minority groups) have persisted in trying to eliminate sexism, violence, and racism from the homescreen. In light of the distorted images of Black life that have dominated our history in this country, it is of paramount importance to monitor those images that are presented over the airwaves.

The history of Black Americans is rich with drama and comedy that covers the wide spectrum of Black social, political, and cultural involvement in this country.

It would be a welcome change to see prime-time documentaries or regularly-scheduled programs that depict events such as the Attica uprising, the life of the controversial Aqam Clayton Powell, Jr., the Amistad slave ship mutiny, the saga of Marcus Garvey, the exploits of the famous all-Black 369th Infantry Division, and many other important subjects.

the relationship between community and land.

The strength of “The People’s Garden” lies in its creative plot development, world building, and, above all, dynamic characterization of our favorite trio. The show’s environment feels incredibly lived in—so much so that viewers can’t help but see themselves in Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim. Without feeling like a stagnant tutorial on how to develop and maintain a garden in an urban environment, every week, viewers are indeed getting an engaging crash course on how to replicate a gardening model in their own homes and neighborhood, which is the ultimate goal of the show’s

By Wista Johnson Amsterdam News Staff

April 21, 1979

During the sixties , one of my pet peeves was television's portrayal of the Black "militant."

Most often, they were depicted as scowling, rhetoric-spouting buffoons who wore black berets and black turtlenecks.

Their sole political activity seemed to be to bad-mouth "whitey." Seldom, if ever, were the reasons for their militancy explained. They seemed intent on anarchy and violence rather than serious social change, although real-life circumstances indicated change was necessary.

It's possible that much of the nation's image of the young,

Black ownership or control of any media is limited at best. (At present there is only one Black-owned television station in the country. Application for another is pending.) Consequently, we must rely on white network programmers to decide the kind, number, and content of those Black programs that are shown.

It seems naive to expect that a medium whose most popular television shows are sit-coms (situation comedies) would or should be sensitive to or willing to develop more diverse Black programs.

The primary objective of television producers is to generate revenue. Television is big business. And in any big business, the idea is to make money, and sometimes, friends.

But, this will remain a pipe dream until more Black producers, writers, or executives are brought into the television hierarchy or white producers, writers, and executives recognize the wealth of material available from the experiences of all ethnic groups in America.

Perhaps, the day will come when there will be more interesting, dramatic (or comedic), and solidly-researched programs or documentaries to follow in the pioneering footsteps of "Roots."

But the responsibility for nudging programmers and advertisers lies with the Black television viewer. We must care enough about our collective image to diligently monitor the kind of daily television fare that the networks feed us and our children.

Television is a powerful weapon for social change. We should be aware of its potential and harness it for our cause.

See IN FUTURE COLOR on page 8

Mr.B, by Ingrid Yuzly Mathurin

The LOVE Page: Ask Your Spirit

By ALICIA WALTERS @aliciacreates

JUNETEENTH 2070

Spirit,

I am 17 years old, living at home with my parents. They are queer, I probably am, too, but I don’t like the label. I want love, not labels. All I know is how I feel and I’m in love with many people of many genders and none at all. They have tried polyamory and decided it was “for the whites” and say being with multiple partners was another way to break up Black families. It feels like they want me to be their kind of queer monogamous, focused on making a living and having babies, emulating the heteronormies. I suppose you could say I’m a free spirit, and so are many in my generation. My parents were among those who shifted the culture and passed laws so that queer and trans people were protected and celebrated in every aspect of society. Well, now we have greater freedom and they want to confine me all over again! I love and respect my parents. The way they have loved me has made me trust myself and them. But I’m feeling the need to strike out in my own way. How do I break the news? Where do I go from here?

DearBeyondQueer,

From our vantage point, you are a clear and strong young person full of love and possibility. Continue being in conversation with yourself about who you are and what you prefer. Be in meditation, journal, talk to your own spirit. Get to know yourself before making any declarations with your parents. They are who they are. The stronger you feel in yourself, the less you will need their approval. The more wise you are on your path, the more they may be able to learn from your example. But nobody likes to be thought of as an old fuddyduddy, so let them have their opinions and experiences without needing to change them. It sounds like they love you immensely and want your happiness. So, you go be happy.

Trust your inner knowing about when it’s time to share something with them. If you trust them, reach out when you need support because with love always comes some pain, no matter how many people you’re loving or what their genders or non-genders are. Keep in mind that all of us are flawed, even those of us in the freedom movements. And as parents and caregivers, we want always to protect our children. Perhaps they see polyamory as poly-heartbreak and want to protect you from it. Whatever the reason, trust that it’s coming from experience and love. That said, you are not your parents!

You have your own calling on this planet, your own life to live. With that, comes some risk. Head up, young person. Find your people. Love the hell out of each other. And bring your parents along for the wild ride.

Sincerely,Spirit

I are in love and feel cared for within our community.

And yet, something deep within is calling me to go to where my ancestors are buried and live off the land. I have this feeling that the love of my life is there. Whether that love is the environment or a person, I do not know. Am I nuts?! My grandmama would say I am. Everything she worked for so I could have this safety net, this abundant life, and I’m just gonna get some overalls and be a farmer? Leave my partner for a dream? If I seemingly have it all and yet more is calling me, how could I leave it?

~RiskingAbundance

DearRiskingAbundance,

Spirit, HELP!

Like so many in my generation, I’m faced with an incredible amount of possible lifestyles and options, and yet saddled with the overwhelm of choosing. I am 34 years old with multiple HBCU degrees and no student debt. My reparations check helped me through college and my first years after graduation. With my guaranteed income, I do what I love and can afford a beautiful home in a cooperative multigenerational eco-building where I am an auntie, child, and grandnibling to many. My partner and

We are so glad to hear you are living in the bounty that generations past envisioned for you! And yet we are not surprised that you are feeling a calling elsewhere. There was a time when we worked so hard there was no time or energy to hear our inner callings. And even if we wanted to follow them, capitalism and anti-Blackness made it so dangerous and there was no safety net. Some of us followed our spirits anyway, risked it all to expand our collective freedom, and those are the most elevated ancestors among us. We praise their names. Perhaps it is a call from your ancestors because where they are buried is a place that has yet to live in the abundance you are experiencing. Or maybe there is an abundance there you have yet to experience. Either way, we are not going to stand in the way of your spirit’s calling. Leaving a partnership and an environment of great love and safety is hard. There will likely be pain there. But if you are leaving in love and what is calling you is love, then it is blessed, child. A life of comfort and no risk is not sustainable. Sometimes, you must test your limits to see who you truly are. Your ancestors wanted to ensure this abundance for you not so you could deny the callings of your imagination, but so you could pursue them. Go forth, young person, and live the life of your dreams.

Sincerely,Spirit

Confidences:

Questions and Answers Should Color Interfere?

By Egypsy Ann Special to the AmNews August 17, 1927

Dear Egypsy Ann:

My whole family are very fair skinned. I love a young man who is very dark and one whom the family is opposed to for that reason. I can’t ask him to my house for fear of this being slighten or insulted by my family— particularly my mother— is always saying something nasty about him. I am eighteen and he is twenty-four. He is truly the finest young man I’ve ever seen. He is unusually brilliant, has a good job, goes to night college, and treats me wonderfully. He is so thoughtful, and furthermore, can be relied upon. He has good features and everyone speaks nicely about him except my family. As long as a man is light and has straight hair, he’s o.k. with them.

If I marry the boy I love I will be considered a member of the family no longer. I have a mother, father, three sisters and one brother and all of them are opposed to

him. Please give me your honest opinion.

-Black Sheep

Dear Black Sheep:

I advise you to marry the man you love. Honestly, if I loved a man with all the good qualities your friend has, and he loved me, I’d consider myself a lucky person.

I know several fair complexioned girls who, although in love with dark men, married light ones. They’re unhappy because they haven’t the one they want. No matter what their husbands may do for them they always have the other man in mind and this makes both them and their husbands miserable.

You’re going to live with this man, not your family. It’s your own affair. When you marry, move into a different neighborhood and make new friends. People who are color-crazed are better left alone.

Sincerely, Egypsy Ann.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Rose Nicaud Global Apprenticeship Initiative

By ALICIA BELL JUNETEENTH 2070

To celebrate and further memorialize Ms. Rose Nicaud, a group of people gathered in 2040 to launch the Rose Nicaud Global Apprenticeship Initiative with a mission to ensure that Black & Indigenous people across the globe are able to thrive in pleasurable libations, across both fields of coffee and mixology. Public-facing members of the founding collective included Sekani Akunyun, Kenya Augurson, Renata Henderson, Bartholomew Jones, and Amtah Naazim.

Over two centuries ago, at a marketplace in the territory formerly known as New Orleans, a Black woman named Rose Nicaud sold coffee. During those days of human trafficking, it cost less to purchase a woman than a man.

With this knowledge, Ms. Nicaud leveraged the patriarchy of chattel slavery against itself and sold enough coffee to purchase her freedom. Before letting anyone know, she spent a few extra weeks at the market so that she’d have enough money to continue her coffee stand and invest in creating a community coffee shop.

In 1840, Nicaud was listed as a free woman in the census. From then on until her death in 1880, Nicaud stewarded one of the first Black-owned coffee shops in New Orleans. This space existed as a neighborhood hub, a space where artists and poets would gather to co-create, a space where people across genders met to discuss business transactions, and a space where newcomers

A Shadow in the Clouds, by Jermel “Blu” Moody

40 Years of Harnessing Journalism’s Potential for Community

By DIAMOND HARDIMAN JUNETEENTH

2070

On the 40th anniversary of the inaugural Dream Lab, we’re here covering the 10th location opening in the revolutionary land of Hawai’i.

The Dream Labs have been a part of a reparations process in media and journalism sparked by artists, media-makers, journalists, and storytellers from across the globe. The initial Dream Lab was part of a reparations response to the long legacy of harm in journalism, an industry that built its wealth on the extraction of Black people. Now part of school curriculum, it is well known that the very first newspaper in the United States acted as a broker for enslaved people, Black newspapers were often bombed, and Black journalists were targeted for daring to tell the truth about the United States.

This particular Dream Lab will be opening on sacred ground, in the newly freed land of Hawai’i. This Dream Lab will be led by a collective of 10 people aged from 10 to 95 years old. People from across the islands will be able to come and cultivate ideas in the world-renowned cafe, plant new visions for liberation in its dream garden, learn about the history of reparations and the fight to free Hawai’i in a 3D immersive exhibit, and write the next headlines for the future in our writing class.

This Dream Lab will be just as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside. It will take the place of an old police station that has been redistributed as a part of a local reparations process.

ON THE HISTORY OF DREAM LABS

Beginning in 2020, people from newsrooms, media houses, and philanthropists worked in collaboration to build grassroots responses to the legacy a harm, particularly in the field of journalism. As an industry with a deep history of violence, people wondered what role the art of storytelling could play in delivering some version of repair, or renewal, to communities. One of

the main questions being asked in this moment was, “What role does journalism play in healing?"

What surfaced was that journalism’s responsibility to healing was inextricably connected to its potential for community building through storytelling, investigative journalism, mutual aid, and information sharing.

These conclusions were not new ones, though. They stemmed from decades of Black journalists and newsrooms that practiced community-building and connection through journalism.

Black storytellers, writers, mu-

stories and strengthen their communities. Their locations in St. Louis, Belize, Palestine, Jamaica, Tanzania, North Carolina, Brazil, Oakland, Puerto Rico, and now Hawai’i have become centers for civic education, idea exchange, and a place to pick up global journalism skills. They have become a new hub for research, contributing community stories and history that was critical to the passing of H.R. 40 in 2030. Artists from across the globe descend on Dream Labs to exchange ideas creative thinkers from every corner of each city.

Movement-aligned leaders from around the world drop in to hear the latest news from community reporters. It was here where organizers first gathered to debate the possibility of switching the global paradigm of the success of a land from GDP (gross domestic product) to happiness indexes. Their information-sharing systems, investigative reporting, and civic engagement programs have given people power over how governance works in their own communities. And the North Carolina location fit with immersive amusement park rides, just replaced Disney World as the happiest place on earth.

MORE LOVE, MORE LIFE

Over the past few decades, the

coming down here and there throughout history, especially one in a place called ‘Berlin,’ I think. But then, boom… No walls anywhere,” she recalled.

Tisha’s family briefly spent time in a detention center at the border of the Old USA when she was a child.

“I cried and cried because it was freezing cold inside that place. Men with guns kept us behind gates. But then the waters came bursting in and we had to show the guards how to make rafts out of mattresses.

Dreamlabs’ ability to connect art, technology, media, community, and journalism to movements like landback, abolition, climate housing, and healthcare have played an important role in creating what we now just know as the new normal. A world where the land is actually stewarded and cared for, prisons are becoming obsolete, and housing and healthcare are human rights.

Black journalists have long understood the power of journalism and storytelling, and they oftentimes paid the price for that knowledge. Dream Labs are simply a continuation of that legacy.

This new location in Hawai’i is sure to do the same and do it with its own specific flair. Here’s to 40 more years of joy, community, and art fueling liberation.

grassy territory known during Tisha’s childhood as New York City. “My great-grandchildren can’t believe there was a time where we shipped food across the earth on trucks, sat it on hard shelves under fluorescent lights for months, and then ate it out of plastic.”

sicians, artists, librarians, and organizers collaborated to create a public square that could bring the worlds of storytelling, mutual aid, and information sharing together.

They set out to create an inviting, irresistible space for community that was grounded in joy, solidarity, care, reciprocity and accountability. And that was how the first Dream Lab was born in St. Louis.

OUR COMMUNAL SUCCESS

Since the opening of the first Dream Lab, in the early part of 2027 in St. Louis, which was actually born of a library and a public newsroom, Dream Labs have helped people both rediscover and invent ways to communicate

My Mother

Continued from page 2

el and incredibly intense storms around most of the globe. This made us all have to move quickly to safety wherever we could find it over the course of about 20 years,” she said in an interview.

Tisha is referring to the landmark Global Reorganization Act of 2035 which permanently suspended the often arbitrary lines of separation of what used to be known as nation states in order to expedite human migration between territories in pursuit of arable land, livable temperatures, potable water, and safe housing.

“I laugh now when I remember the sight of everyone coming together to tear down those border gates and walls. My school books had stories of border walls

Tisha’s favorite thing about her life today in the Old USA is the absence of guns. Once the sale of guns and ammunition were outlawed during the Reorganization and people willingly traded them for food and shelter, armed conflicts decreased by 99%. Federal legislation created tax incentives for the conversion of jails and prisons, and replaced courts with community restorative justice councils.

These councils, known to some as “ReJoes,” now support the needs of residents who have been harmed and mediate solutions in collaboration with those who have committed harm.

“When I’m in a restoration circle, the sounds of my people’s voices softly singing and the feeling of my neighbors’ physical presence around me makes me feel so safe and held, even if the questions we’re answering are hard,” she said.

Tisha and her family are now stewards of a 100-acre section here in Orun-Rere District, on a

Now that long distance supply chains are largely a thing of the past, all shipping containers have been repurposed for housing, coffee shops, public art, story bars, gardens, and other uses fit for these times. As the world community gears up to celebrate 10 years since The Reorganization, we asked Tisha’s family what their message is to this generation.

“Mother Earth is a strong-willed parent to us,” said restorative climatologist Marcus Brown, Tisha’s cousin and a leading voice in The Reorganization. “We stripped her of her lifeblood while expecting her to nourish us. And so today we must never forget: Always center each other’s well being as the ultimate expression of caring for our Mother.”

Tisha will join millions of people around the planet in making the pilgrimage across many miles to Nu Inati, formerly known as Ethiopia, where they will be welcomed by people directly descended from Mitochondrial Eve. The Reorganization anniversary will feature a bringing of foods, seeds, arts, medicines, technologies, and stories from around the world for collection into a capsule that is revisited every five years, under the theme “In the Arms of Our Mother.”

Ibelongtoyou;youbelongtome, by Diamond Hardiman

The Limits Of Black Capitalism

By Floyd MsKissick (Author of “3/5 Of A Man”) August 16, 1969

The concept of Black capitalism has neatly defined and stifling limits. It has potential to aid certain people within the Black Community and, as long as the dominant society is capitalist, it is necessary to develop capitalism within the Black community in order to grant even a minimum amount of participation in the economy.

If a strong, responsive class of Black capitalists are developed, money and power will be brought into the Black Community. But it will not be money and power in significant amount, nor money and power which filters down to the poor Blacks, unless Black community is administered in a way quite different from white capitalism. The days of the small business are over. Black candy store owners will not save the Black economy—certainly not if they continue to be reliant upon white banks and financial institutions for their money. In any case, the margin for survival for small businesses is small and more businessmen will fail than will succeed. After all, the whole economy is dominated by giant corporations. Tiny individual enterprises can hardly expect to compete with Coca Cola, Dupont or Standard Oil, on any level.

Black corporations must be developed, but they must be corporations which are run by the community and are responsive to the community. They must be administered by Blacks in order to reserve their power for Blacks.

Not even these corporations will guarantee a reasonably high standard of living for all Blacks, even the poor. And the inherent danger in such institutions is that Black capitalists will be utilized by whites to "keep Black communities cool," without changing any of the basic conditions which, until now, have kept Black Communities hot.

Too often, the Black middle class has been separated from the masses of Blacks by the devious strategies of the white government and the white corporation presidents. Unless basic and radical changes are made in the way in which affluent Blacks represent the masses of Blacks, Black capitalism will be no salvation at all.

And, perhaps most important, even the success of Black capitalism—which is difficult to envision in a racist society— would not change the basic attitudes and policies of the United States. We would still be a part of a country which oppresses poor and non-white people around the world, but only a more active part.

See Capitalism page 8

Family Legacy

By april september @fuckgentrification

JUNETEENTH 2070

Can you imagine my BLACK PRIDE & JOY when I found this family photograph?! My greatgrandmother “Nanny” front and center looking like a BADASS, surrounded by siblings and extended family members.

The text below is from an audio recording of me showing my cousin Carlton the family photograph. He had never seen it before.

“Look at the McCray’s! Look at all them guns! Even the women got guns. Cause you know back in the day when the Klan would come around all the mens was out in the field with the guns and all

the women’s was in the houses. They had hot scalding water and cooking grease! That they was prepared, you know when they came up to the house they was fixing to dash some grease and

Racial Capitalism Has Fallen, Revolutionary Love Wins!

By VENNEIKIA WILLIAMS JUNETEENTH 2070

In the year 2070 it is easy to take for granted that we value people over profit; that when we see our neighbor in need we are quick to help. It took generations of effort, but we have created and existed in abundance. It is beautiful. But it was not always this way. Come with me on a journey to the past, to 2023. Racial capitalism still reigned supreme, and we did not value the principles of ubuntu and revolutionary love as we do now in 2070.

The following is a step back in time, a review of a system that once was.

In the first part of the 21st century, many people still clung to the lie that capitalism was anything but a failing system. Most thought that those with both fame and fortune achieved success through hard work alone not by exploiting and extracting from others. Time was spent building isolated kingdoms instead of integrated communities. Society was obsessed with amassing and hoarding resources that could only be enjoyed by a few. This was nothing new, but not the way it had to be. Racialized capitalism was killing our people slowly but surely, from workers’ rights being trampled upon and stripped away to those who sought alignment within the

misleadership class, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

Something different, more life-giving and sustaining, was needed.

If racial capitalism was the thing that plagued us (and its legacy still is), I believe living out the values of ubuntu and revolutionary love will be what will fully heal us.

What did this radical idea mean in light of the forces of destruction our ancestors faced on a daily basis? How does this same spirit of collectivism benefit us in this day and age?

Rugged individualism was almost the death of us. No one is meant to do life alone.

One study from 2019 revealed that 58% of citizens of the territory formerly known as the United States of America often felt like no one in their life knew them well. Loneliness, isolation, and burnout are all byproducts of capitalism. When our lives revolve around work and working to stay alive, this leaves little room to explore the wonders of community…but we must make time.

The Zulu phrase Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu loosely translates to “a person is a person because of other people.”

Kinship is not limited to those we have biological connections to, but also to the people we choose to share life with. Kinship, connection, collaboration, and love were and are the things needed to combat against the real stressors and pressures we face.

Love is not an empty, powerless thing. This is made wonderfully clear in Assata Shakur’s poem on love:

Love

Love is contraband in Hell, cause love is an acid that eats away bars. But you, me, and tomorrow hold hands and make vows that struggle will multiply.

The hacksaw has two blades. The shotgun has two barrels. We are pregnant with freedom.

We are a conspiracy.

ence of our struggles and attack them strategically. Fecund and pregnant with freedom, we wait expectantly to see what we’ll birth together in the days ahead.

We are a conspiracy. The roots of the word ‘conspire’ means to breathetogether.

We are breathing together, formulating something divinely dangerous to the status quo.

Ubuntu, collectivism, and revolutionary love demand that we give of ourselves, knowing that we are nothing without the people around us.

According to the book Liberating Church, ubuntu demands certain things. Ubuntu requires a redistribution and equitable sharing of resources, a hospitality for the “person passing through,” and a necessary respect for and celebration of the different skills and ways of making meaning in the world.

This means sharing what we have and being able to ask for what we need, believing our community will provide. This is where our power lies. This is how we transformed our world and began to heal our society.

As the world trembles and quakes all around, we stand firmly rooted in revolutionary love and our belief that we will win. Gwendolyn Brooks spoke about us being each other's harvest. We are each other’s business and treasure.

The powers that be the ones that seek to kill, steal, and destroy this treasure — are menacing but not indestructible; we’ve already proven this. June Jordan reminded us that we are the ones we have been waiting for. No one was coming to save us, so we saved ourselves. As Ella Baker and others have taught us, strong people don’t need strong leaders. We are one another’s strength and portion.

Looking back after nearly 50 years, I thank goodness that we no longer live in silos.

hot water and all that kind of stuff. That’s right. They didn’t play back in the day. They wasn't scared either. My daddy wasn't scared of nothing but God. I ain't lying he was a bad dude.”

Our love is contraband in the hellscape the so-called “United States” has constructed. Acid that strips aways the barriers and barricades. Together, we stand surefooted in the pres-

We no longer have to face societal pressures alone.

That we have forgotten what loneliness means.

That love is what keeps us knitted together.

could find other like-minded individuals to build community with. Throughout this time, Ms. Rose, as she was affectionately known, would host regular residencies for herbalists, mixologists, and others to explore the intersections between their fields of practice and coffee.

Today, that legacy is carried on by the Nicaud Initiative, which has experienced incredible growth over the last thirty years. Much of this success is showcased throughout their network of 700 pleasurable libationists across the world. Network membership includes Black & Indigenous mixologists, coffee specialists, artists, and comrades from each major global territory.

This network was built, in part, through the initiative’s six Pleasureable Libations Apprenticeship Cohorts and the annual Coffology Residency. On top of universal basic income, Pleasurable Libations Apprentices receive five years of additional guaranteed income as well as ongoing mentorship and support from seasoned coffee and mixology practitioners. The annual Coffology Residency pairs coffee and mixology practitioners together to experiment with co-creation and serve people in the surrounding community.

I asked Nicaud Initiative cocreator Augurson about her favorite residency year. She said that of course she couldn’t choose a favorite, but did highlight one of the drinks created through the resi-

Reparations

Continued from page 3

to build power locally and empower the movement at large strategically.

For the first time, the country could collectively imagine what a world without anti-Blackness actually looked like, energizing a litany of Black people, particularly young Black people, to join the movement for reparations.

THE 2028 ELECTION & SUSTAINED HOPE

If HBO’s “Reconstruction” brought about a cultural revolution across Black America, the election of Stacey Abrams, the nation’s first female president, catalyzed a political revolution that changed the trajectory of the reparations conversation.

After nearly losing the election in 2024 after another challenge by former President Donald Trump, the Democratic party realized it had to radically shift its leader-

dency: the Foxy Brown. “It is made with brown sugar, brown butter, sea salt, cinnamon, and vanilla, which include a couple of ‘brown’ components representing Blackness,” she said.

In Future Color

Continued from page 4

Any profits garnered by “The People’s Garden” are evenly distributed between two primary pots, one for cast, crew, and staff, and the other directly back into Bed-Stuy via a community board and land trust. TV continues to be a partner in community expression and storytelling and therefore contributes materially to the people it puts on display. While this is now considered a standard practice in TV production and distribution, we wouldn’t be in this place without widespread cultural shifts, labor

In addition to their programmatic work, members of the Nicaud initiative have been instrumental in establishing and implementing a universal right to arts and creative education.

“My background as a performance artist taught me to create something out of nothing," said co-creator Akunyun. She told us that she wouldn’t be the mixologist she is today without an arts education.

“As our spirits, crops, and communities evolve, I pride myself on always being able to create a cocktail or mocktail regardless of the ingredients I have available to me.”

Akunyun shared that the arts education both she and her daughter had access to were key inspirations in her advocacy. During our time together, co-creator Jones shared a song he’d released in 2023 called “very rare//:FREEDOMFLY.” The song predates the collective, showcasing Jones’ lengthy commitment to weaving coffee and creative practice together.

actions, and strikes led by Black and other marginalized people before us who challenged and ultimately defeated the corporate greed, exploitation, monopolies, and capitalism that once mired our industry. Thankfully, “The People’s Garden” is part of our current golden era of TV by joining a vast lineage of shows that utilize an economic model that puts community at the center. As viewers get ready for the second half of the breakout show’s first season, Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim would urge us all to consider how we can delve more deeply into their universe while considering how we can do so in our own communities.

Citing the climate disaster of the early 2000s and its impacts on the changing taste profiles of coffee, juniper, cranberries, yams, and more, the Nicaud Initiative has also leveraged the power of its network to ensure reparative and healing land practices globally. Some members of the Nicaud Network now serve as land ambassadors and stewards in their various local communities.

So what’s next for the Nicaud Initiative? They’re currently co-conspiring with community artists William Jackson and Collette Watson to expand their programmatic work, creating and launching dream sabbaticals for pleasurable libationists, artists, educators, land stewards, and cultural workers across the globe. “We’ll never stop working for our community,” co-creator Amtah Naazim shared, “but in order to have the iteration and imagination we deserve, we also have to dream and we can’t really dream without at least microdosing deep rest on a continuous basis.”

Capitalism

Continued from page 7

I believe that the development of responsive Black capitalism is worth the effort. It is worth every effort to stop the day to day suffering and poverty of so many Black Americans. It is worth the effort to help even one Black child. But while we work at building a Black capitalist base, we must always keep in mind the limits of this strategy. We must realize that no kind of capitalism, Black or white, will ever solve the problems of the poor or guarantee peace—at home or abroad.

wave it hadn’t seen in over 125,000 years. From Spain to Pakistan and the U.S., temperatures elevated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and those still in denial that the climate crisis was real finally understood that our time on Earth was dwindling unless radical action was taken. That year, a record 10 million people died from extreme heat the world was finally ready for change.

countries like the U.S. being the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. This added a new global lens to the reparations conversation and elevated the perspective of people of color within an environmental movement that was historically white-led.

ship to one that better represented the increasing diversity of America.

Stacey Abrams, who was no stranger to the national political scene, surprisingly chose Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) as her running mate. The choice ran afoul of the type of candidate that Democrats could foresee increasing support for a Presidential candidate.

The summer before the election, after Abrams won the Democratic primary and announced that AOC would be her running mate, the world experienced a heat-

Of course, this elevated the Green New Deal, the sweeping legislative package that created 100% clean, renewable energy, and put a carbon tax, a jobs guarantee, and free college at the top of their policy agenda.

They noted that the Green New Deal would have to deal with the nation’s two founding sins Indigenous land theft, and the enslavement of African people. Abrams proclaimed it is “only then that rebuilding can happen.”

They also argued that the U.S. and other nations in the West owed climate reparations to the Global South as they’ve been forced to deal with the brunt of the climate disaster despite

After the pair won the election, they acted swiftly in coordination with Congress to pass the Green New Deal, which included specific language create a Department of Reparations, study the legacy of slavery and colonialism, direct Congress on where and how financial compensation should be directed, and recommended changes to laws that would transform the systems that entrench anti-Blackness and other forms of discrimination.

Their presidency laid the foundation for where we are today: a nation with still a lot of work to do, but one that has accepted that we owe our future generations a world radically different from the one we inherited. The movement for reparations ushered forth a new era in this country, and for that, we should be eternally grateful.

CoffologyCollage, by StephGil