The World We Need Already Exists

On crafting the memory of the truth

Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach (1988), Faith Ringgold. Acrylic paint, canvas, printed fabric, ink, and thread. Ringgold’s vehicle is the story quilt—a traditional American craft associated with women’s communal work that also has roots in African culture. “Sleeping on Tar Beach was magical . . .” explains Cassie in the text on the quilt, “only eight years old and in the third grade and I can fly. That means I am free to go wherever I want to for the rest of my life.”

The Physics of Cotton

Our bodies string instruments
Strumming string theory

Fiber is the only material art form
That lets you write stories in mid air
                               and leave them there

Fiber as in cloth
Fiber as in thread
Fiber as in glue
Fiber as in the cotton
                               connecting me
                               to you.


— Ayana Zaire Cotton 

It’s all already happened.

Just like the blue sky is always there behind the clouds, inside the Black Radical Time Continuum: you ar…