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Reflections on Freedom Dreaming
Not sure how many of y’all were able to attend the Freedom Dreaming session of our Black Feminist Night School Series in December (I only stayed for part) but it was amazing!!
The concept of Freedom Dreaming was introduced by scholar Robin D. G. Kelley who said the following about his book: “This exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora throughout the twentieth century begins with the premise that the catalyst for political engagement has rarely been misery, poverty, or oppression. People are drawn to social movement because of hope: their dreams of a new world radically different from the one they inherited.”
I really latched on to this idea last year and the concept of freedom dreams and what that looks like in real time, for black women and other women of color, in the year 2021 is what inspired us to have this conversation. Just wanted to share a few quotes from participants of the session that I found particularly thought provoking and inspiring!Freedom Dreaming in 2020
And through all those ravages, folk are still resisting and loving out loud.
Radical imagination is very necessary.
"Directly a rejection of hopelessness..."
"Hope is a discipline."
Hope is political!
The only reason I'm still here is because of the discipline of hope. We have so many reasons to give up...yet we press on. For me, with pragmatic optimism.
What prevents us from imagining new worlds?
Dreaming can feel like a privilege when you feel like you need to use your time to contemplate survival.
awakening ancestral memory & healing generational trauma
I think it’s scary to imagine new worlds because you are then accountable for struggling to make it work
Dreams are reality in a different realm.
also under capitalism - “dreaming isn’t productive”
"...to be outside of imperial, settler-colonial, white supremacist time..."
And taking that time is a form of rebellion
too busy assimilating to dream. sad but true for me, trying to unlearn my safe black ways
Tubmian tasks
“What are we surviving for?” That question is weighing on me!!!!
My question: Did Tubman live joyfully? Or was her life all labor?
why can't it be both joyful and labor,
Alice walker says joy is in the resistance… also thinking about how we hold both
What would life look like if I felt secure? Safe? Wasn't always operating from a space of hypervigilance.
concept of fugitive space is succinctly “you’re not free yet but you made the decision to run” -Dumas..... “running toward not from” -Stovall
What freedom looks like to me.
being free to love whomever you want and not needing a label/ definition to describe what you are??? #MindyourBusiness
Letting my Black child be wild and free
I dream of a world where children can be children because societies, communities, and families are whole, full, and stable enough to allow it.
Freedom from the tyranny of “beauty” and “desirability.” How much of our time and energy is spent wrestling with standards that have nothing to do with us beyond their ability to extract from and discard us? I dream of a world where Black women and femmes are not pitted against each other in any regard, a world that regularly represents and accepts the ways that we desire and want to be loved; a world in which the scarcity mindset is not inflicted on us and coercing us every day to fight each other for scraps…of relationships, of happiness. Where Black women and femmes can come through with a range of shapes, shades, abilities, hair textures, facial features and KNOW that they will receive dignity, care, love, and respect.
I haven’t been on this earth that long to experience a lot. my vision of freedom is freedom of education, freedom of spirituality or religions, freedom of evolution. by evolution I mean protecting the people, the air, food resources, respecting people from cultures, the evolution of freedom to save the planet.
Freedom from sexual violence.
The ability to thrive to my fullest potential with no intentional barriers placed in front of me.
freedom looks like the ability to succeed based on what you bring to the table, unburdened by preconceived expectations and supported by a culture that wants what's best for us as a whole without hidden agendas.
The freedom for me to exist in my own body freely, and reconcile all the parts of myself I have been told to forget. I want to be as big as I wanna be without restriction from the world, from my community, and from even myself.
freedom from the subconscious default that I’m not enough
free of colonizing black female bodies within patriarchal capitalism
The freedom to both receive and freely offer love in all its forms to all whom I seek to bless
I want to just sing, write songs, perform, create hope, healing and inspiration. I love performing because I can go into a zone. I can come out of expectations and feel my imagination. When I’m creating, I’m growing, developing, revising. But at the same time, I am like Nina Simone, “I wish I knew how it feels to be free, living a life of pure creativity and inspiration. How can I be more of an enemy of the state?
True equity and equality. Connection, support amongst Black people as a whole. Supporting one another, being able to be transparent, loving one another, supporting and express ourselves. All Black communities thriving safely, peacefully.
Just coming to this space is taking a step towards freedom.
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