A Timeless Response to Devastating Moments Like These.
The world seems to have one devastating event after another, and the urgency to strengthen relationships, support one another, and fulfill each other’s needs outside of institutions feels more and more relevant. Many of the solutions offered by elected officials are mired with bureaucracy and lack innovation. In addition, those solutions remove agency from citizens and place it into the hands of institutions that don’t value community needs. It feels poignant to remind us of important work that a few GEO members did during Trump’s last presidency.
Ajowa Ifateyo, Ebony Gustave and myself produced a project called Design for the Commons which developed a neighborhood and food sovereignty toolkit of mutual aid systems that could be started among just a couple of neighbors. As a sub project we also produced a map called the Commons Economy map. It was built to identify zero waste shops, cooperatives, makerspaces, reuse shops, and community supported agriculture programs. Both projects illuminate the opportunities where care already exists or can be developed around you.
Take a look back with us as we refresh some of the tools in the kit and revisit some speculative fiction we produced as a result of the world we illuminated with these projects. This speculative fiction can also be listened to on YouTube for a full sonic experience. Those of us who have been committed to solidarity work for a long time know that we just have to stay the course, but it can be nice to be reminded of the methods that we don’t touch every day.
First, let’s lay some groundwork about what we mean when we say The Commons. The Commons are a set of resources and places that are accessible to all members of society (parks, libraries, air). When we say ‘the commons’ we are referring to things and places that are held collectively, not owned privately. These are places that foster cooperation, curiosity, and interdependence. We believe that resilient communities and cities start in The Commons and they start with knowing your neighbors.
The systems offered in the neighborhood toolkit result in strengthened networks and relationships. We offer age-old tools such as neighborhood time banks and savings clubs and new systems such as the Green Chair Initiative in Detroit to provide a door to an ideal world where care is a part of the fabric of our economy.
One of my favorites I’d like to highlight is an Offers and Needs list that can be created among neighbors and friends. This is a list that takes inventory of the skills offered in your community that may be someone’s main occupation or just a hobby they are good at. It can be stored in a place that everyone has access to like a google drive and the group can consult it when they may need that skill.
In a similar devastating moment in 2020 I remember sliding an index card under all of the doors on my apartment building floor that read: “Hi! My name is Malikia and I live in apartment 401. I am creating a list of offers and needs in the building so that we can support each other as neighbors. If you want to be a part of the list, text me your email and I will add you to the spreadsheet.” And voila! With that small gesture I was able to learn about the cool things that people just next door did. It also started building trust between each of us. We eventually felt comfortable asking for small favors now that we had made a connection. We baked a pie for our neighbors that year and in turn they felt comfortable asking us for little kitchen items. These examples are small but felt really meaningful at the time when everything was so unknown and our social media feeds were filled with so much despair, not unlike the moment we are having right now.
The tools presented in the neighborhood kit are intended to serve as introductory templates for communities to shape to their needs. Each tool can be adapted to different spaces and scales – from one block to multiple streets. When choosing tools, we ensured there are a range of options that can be used by neighbors new and old, or familiar and very unfamiliar. The goal is to offer simple and approachable choices that allow community members to determine which tools are the best match for their budget and capacity. Included in each description is a list of key materials, cost, maintenance, and trust estimates that would be required for each tool. You’ll see levels represented by graphic scales, with one dollar sign and a paint bucket indicating the lowest investment and four indicating the highest investment. You can find the toolkit here.
The next toolkit that we created in 2020 that can help us during these times was the food sovereignty toolkit. Our mission for the toolkit was to offer intelligent food systems outside of large institutions. We included instructions to popular events like potlucks (with a waste conscious twist), and less popular methods like guerilla gardening. This is a type of gardening that can happen anywhere there is vacant land. We also found and offered food systems that fuse with community initiatives to, once again, enhance the trust and care in our neighborhoods. During this time we also led a workshop with CoFED to teach people about these systems and to make food together virtually since we were still in the height of the pandemic. We collected the recipes from that event and made a recipe book that you can find here. You can also find the food sovereignty toolkit here.
As a part of Design for the Commons and in collaboration with Mina Collaborative, we also crafted a map in Washington, DC; Nashville, Tennessee; and New York City, NY that illuminated the parts of the city that thrived on care and autonomy. We called it the Commons Economy map. It illuminated zero waste shops, cooperatives, makerspaces, reuse shops, and community supported agriculture programs. We chose these places because this is where the creators of the map were living at the time. It was also an exercise for us to prove to ourselves that care was closer than social media wanted us to believe. The initiative ended but is still worthy to look at as a way to illuminate the part of the economy that already operates on care. You can visit the Commons Economy map here.
If you need something to do, if you are wondering how we will get past this moment, if you are tired of feeling helpless, let us offer these tools as tangible solutions that can create pretty quick results toward connection and finding people with similar values in your community.
To end this piece, I have a short speculative fiction that we paired with the Commons Economy map rollout. It details our wildest imagination of what the world might look like if these tools get carried out to their full potential. I’ve upgraded and revised it since 2021. Enjoy it below and listen to the 2021 version here.
Once upon a time in the very near future there was a corridor. It was collectively owned by all who lived there and intelligently managed by the chosen stewards of the community. The corridor is made up of gorgeous structures designed from biomimicry principles and easily repaired by the community. There are special parties dedicated to refurbishing the structures where music, smoothies, and casseroles are there to delight in. We have herb gardens in every structure making each one smell like basil, rosemary, thyme, or any other herb that lines the walls. Nearby there are parks with orange and apple trees tended to by the volunteer land stewards and even local school children come by and eat here for lunch.
All of a sudden you turn the corner and there’s the dopest block party you’ve ever seen. We designed this space so you can contribute to the music. There’s instruments for you to play on all sides and usually someone’s there to help if you need so it’s a constant music session. Now let’s keep strolling. You see these brilliant structures? The architects love mimicking tangled vines. It’s a visual reminder of how connected we all are. In these buildings each room can be used for almost anything. Last week we had a group pickling and canning party over here and the week before that we had a pizza party at the cob oven out back. Down here there’s this swanky sort of indoor/ outdoor place to eat and you see the space is set up in a way that requires you to eat with strangers like family. Let’s keep going.
This place is sort of like a museum. At the top it houses art that was created along this corridor and the neighborhood decided it wanted to keep and down here is art that people created that you can add to. Down here is a tool library where you can check out kitchen items like cast iron pans or hardware for your own personal projects and even bikes, and skateboards. Now we’ve found the oasis. Isn’t it sublime? This place is especially curated with plants and flowers native to our city. You can even drink the water coming out of the walls. There are times when only children and elders are allowed inside. Most of us come here to sit and read but you can just hang out with your friends too. All along the corridor you’ll see guerilla gardens that act like little secret paradises, green shirt residents who are trained street medics and you can go to for safety concerns or emergency help.
Coming to a place like this brings up more what if questions about what could be. Questions like what if ambulances played a song of healing? Or what if lettuce and broccoli plants line the medians? At the end of the corridor we have benches where you can sit and ponder and a board where you can write ideas about what the community should add.
We’re at the end of the tour but people call this corridor Sunny Lane and like the sun it can give energy to your dreams allowing them to grow and be fed. Maybe in the near future you’ll come back and grow a dream or two, or maybe you’ll sit on the bench and get lost in the charm of it all. Either way you’re welcomed and we hope to see you soon.