Imagine...from Yolo Akili

Imagine for a minute. A world with no racism, no sexism. No patriarchy, no Homo-phobia no Ableism.

Imagine.

Difference is celebrated. We are different people, different languages, different cultures. Yet none are considered superior to the other, all are seen to be of equal value and importance.

Imagine a world where violence was not the rule of survival. Where dicks are not weapons of mass destruction. Imagine children are safe from sexual assault. Rape is unheard of.

Imagine it is a common cultural belief that our bodies, in all of thier different shapes, sizes and hues, are seen as vessels of the divine. Imagine we are taught ourselves that we are divine. That God, Goddess is us. That we have inner power and immanent value. That "god" loves us by simply living within us. By animating us with life energy .

Imagine.

Imagine we have many identities; children are encouraged to create thier own language to name themselves; we are all able to name ourselves as we wish.

Imagine.

No Homophobia. No fear of same sex desire. It is ok to love openly and bodly who you desire. We are not force fed heterosexuality or taught sexism from birth. No one is told they must be something based on their physical body. We are allowed to be what we wish.

Imagine. Narrow categories of gender do not exist. We express as we wish, in whatever capacity we choose. We wear colors on whatever body we chose and thier are not repercussions.

Imagine, affection and sensuality are of equal value as penetration and orgasm.

Imagine.

Animals that are eaten are honored in their life. Treated with respect and dignity. Thier are no steriods.

Imagine the earth itself is treated with respect and dignity. That our lives are centered around the replenishment and sustenance of the planet, because we all believe in many ways the planet is ourselves.

Imagine, we live in connection with the earth, with technology that provides comfort and engenders sustainability, and does not pollute.

Imagine we loved to love instead of loving to hurt.

Imagine a world where the denigration of others is not entertainment. Their is no Jerry Springer, no reality shows where people are "othered" and introduced as "freaks" to make us feel better about ourselves.


Imagine a community - Where privacy and accountability struck a balance. Where no phenomenon is seen not to be apart of the greater whole. Where we didn't dissapear into "nuclear" families,living behind closed doors and shut blinds, keeping all our pain and challenges inside, homes ultimately designed to self destruct...

Imagine a world where the study and love of the self was valued. That children and people were taught that to understand life, they had to first explore themselves.

Imagine.

Sometimes I do. Because at the end of the day, another world is possible. And that world is always us. And I believe we always have a chance to be that world every waking moment.

But i think before we can end the isms, before we can end oppression and violence. Before any of that can happen...We have to first imagine...

ya know?

Yolo

wishes granted thru what u learn from urself

what is the difference between me and the person created in all the info about myself i transmit thru my phone? or computer?

my frend talking about kids coming up today constantly constructed thru digital persona, its a very powerful tool for self realization, make it urself because everything in society negates u. in school i didn't pay attention in class, just wrote in my journals, all thru all the classes i could get away with it in, still passed because i'm smart, now i understand what i was doing, writing a book, but the white man english teacher

i once gave him a zine of mine with mostly poetry, all true, he said "just because its about something painful doesn't make it good poetry," no joke. i was writing about my life.

once he surveyed us in ap english class, 11th grade, about our exposure to arts and culture, me: so talented that my kindergarten painting won a traveling contest through all texas art museums, the survey existed to make me ashamed for not having the exposure,

it took college to give me the analysis for that, the only weird girl, poor mixed trash in the class, everyone else was white living right on the lake, no one from my neighborhood in that class,

otherwise maybe i would have stayed repressed and self-hating, took nervous breakdowns, decompensations back into crazy to give me the language for this

i had exposure that i had always been having thru the internet, i had to think hard about untwisting this knot in my stomach, the digital divide, how did we get on the internet? my dad drove a busted caprice three days from texas to drop off a computer to our apartment and every grocery store had 25 free hours of aol on discs at the exit, we worked it out, i never thought about it but what did my mom use the comp for? i know what i used it for, now

studies show that youth use the internet to supplement their education by doing extensive research into areas that they can't get at school- when i saw the study i was like oh yeah thats what i did, got on the internet and got way into life saving self publishing with other adolescent/teen girls healing from violence and abuse. now high school kids at the alt high school in my hometown can get credit for doing online classes. studies show that women who write give themselves better health, what would happen if we push the shifting; if all creativity is pushed out of school, work and public life, what would happen if u could get ur degree making art, zines, crafting a difital prescence? or get paid to heal in traditional ways and creative ways? if all the work u did to heal urself or tell ur story was valued?

if making the truth is what u have to do

From Louise Gregory

....I wish I knew how to get rid of my OCD.

SPEAK!: a CD by Radical Women of Color

Wish

I wish I were pregnant.

Self Measuring

I wish that I could see slow processes of projects as a natural timeline of development, not as a measurement of personal progress.

Wishes for Trenton

by Janeria

1. You are free from all constraints, nothing stands in your way; not ignorance, not sickness. You are boundless.
2. I am no longer considered the one who made it in spite of you; we all know I made it because of you.
3. Your men are strong, powerful, and wise; they choose their own paths.
4. Your women are strong, wise, and loved for their beauty; they also choose their own paths.
5. Your men and women work together; you love and would do anything for each other.
6. Your children can play outside without the fear of losing their lives.
7. Your young men don’t have to form a new family to feel love; for love is abundant and overflowing.
8. Your young women know their worth; they carry themselves like the queens that they truly are.
9. Your family structure has been restored.
10. What’s yours is yours, and yours to share; no one has to take anything from anyone.
11. Your streets have long since forgotten the scent of blood.
12. Your schools are successful, and the press leads the city in praises. Everyone graduates with honors.
13. The bridge now speaks the truth. The world really does take what Trenton makes.
14. When people leave, they cannot wait to return. Everyone gives back to the community.
15.You have all let go of your dirty habits. All of the bars and liquor stores have closed; cigarettes don’t cross into the city limits.
16. Unemployment is a faint memory. We’ve almost forgotten what these words mean.
17. The state prison has been moved. There is no need for a prison in a prisoner-less city.
18. The gangs have laid there flags to rest.
19. We are all one big happy family.