In this episode, Aisha Shillingford invites us into a practice of imaginative world-building that involves thinking far into the future, deep intuition, and bold dreaming. She says we have the right and the responsibility to imagine another future, and what comes next depends on our ability to imagine. Aisha asks us to imagine not just changing our current system by knocking down what’s not working, but envisioning new systems altogether. She also reminds us that making space for imaginative work and allowing time for rest are necessary for entering a mindset of bold visioning and working toward the world we want to build.

Aisha Shillingford is an artist, world builder, poet, and the Artistic Director of Intelligent Mischief. Her mixed-media collages, text-based work, street art, murals, installation and experiential design work reflect Black utopias, abolition, Black radical imagination, solidarity economics and climate futures. She has been an artist in residence within Laundromat Project's Creative Change Program, a mentor at the New Museum Incubator, and a Project Fellow at NYU Tisch Interactive Technology Program. She is committed to creating art, spaces and experiences that inspire Black folks to imagine and co-create beautiful futures together.

This talk is part of the series “Collective Climate Action: Inspired Organizing for Our Future” produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. If you’d like to watch a video version of this talk, it’s available on Spring Creek Project’s YouTube channel.