PART ONE: A SPECULATIVE NARRATIVE
A Future Message (circa 2053) to the Catalysts Making That Future Possible (circa 2023) with love to Ralph Yarl
Lisa Yancey
We don’t see those headlines anymore.
No more “Black man shot by police officers,”
or “Sixteen-year-old baby shot in the head through the door by a White man.”
Babies are seen as babies.
Teens are seen as teens.
Brazen young adults are seen as feelin’ themselves.
That’s all.
That’s normal.
They don’t die.
They don’t get shot.
They get to keep playing their bass clarinet.
In this “now” time, we are drenched in joy and dreaming.
Genuinely happy—like backyard-barbecues-happy with loud music, dancing, laughter, and so much food the whole block gets to take a plate home.
Once those of us who were fighting for equity and justice realized our imaginings and brilliance didn’t need permission to be unleashed, what we produced transformed the world. We shifted the paradigm of how stories and histories are told. We have immersive narrative pods where you go into digital portals and pick a time or event to hear people from every community recount what it was like for them and their families at that time. NFTs are used as digital stamps verifying and certifying ownership and authenticity for every record. These pods are so popular they are like what I believe used to be called phone booths in the twentieth century—but better. They were created by a solidarity collective of scholars, gamers, writers, coders, and blockchain innovators who were primarily BIPOC and women.
Hearing different people talk about the same event yet grappling with different needs, priorities, values, and beliefs stretched our capacity to embrace human and social complexities. We were able to form our own opinions about truth. No one voice or source shaped the narrative. This transformed how people processed information and formed conclusions.
We realized we couldn’t simply make people understand.
The head wasn’t enough. We needed the heart.
Feelings are where memories build homes and tombs.
The mind was fine for debate but not enough for sustained action.
We needed them both strong, though.
We needed the mind to have the capacity to understand and the heart to break us open for new possibilities.
We couldn't have a breakthrough without breaking something—and in this case, it's the behaviors and beliefs that keep one stuck.
We figured it out!!
We changed the narrative.
We realized it makes a difference to shift from kidnapped girls to “Save our girls.”
From another slain to “Say their names.”
We grew from inclusion to belonging.
From diversity to pluralism.
From nationalism to humanism.
From fear to freedom.
Unafraid of difference.
Forsooth, expecting it.
It was work, a shit ton.
But we see the fruit
fed by the harvest of
your work
our work
we work.
“WE” actually works.
I thought you should know.
We ain’t done yet, though.
The sun is unrelenting.
The earth wields her wrath from our abuse.
We must atone.
But no more sixteen-year-old babies are harmed because someone believed a narrative of fear.
We thrive in joy and possibilities.
We know the power of WE.
We know that every system constructed can be deconstructed and reconstructed. Period.
We deconstructed and reconstructed with a solidarity agreement that whatever is built, all people and our planet have to have the ability to thrive. Once that became a basic tenet of our new system design and distribution of power—joy, authentic relationships, and just existence followed.
Wanted you to know so that you can press on and press harder. You might not see it now, but it’s coming, so don’t let up.
ABOUT THE COVER ART
Original artwork produced by Lynnette Kaid, A kaid’n kolor Production, in collaboration with author Lisa Yancey.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Lisa Yancey is president and founder of Yancey Consulting.
She is a thinker and doer who cares about our current state and our future. She knows that her life has a purpose beyond her personal comforts. She has dreams yet realized and those that are fulfilled. The dancer and lawyer in her frame her dedication, rigor, creativity, and work practice. She wants her labor to matter long after she is gone.
Best qualities: active listener, strategist, activist, loyal friend, mentor, forever dancer, and entrepreneur.
