Future Lands (Vol. 2) ✰✰✰
PRESENTED BY HIGHLANDER CENTER
Join Highlander Center and Future Front for the second iteration of FutureLands, our Fall Lyceum. This time, Highlander Center will take over The Future Front House with an all-day teach-in, exploring the artistic, cultural and creative impact of southern people’s struggles for justice and democracy.
We’re diving deep into the third spaces we love and the intersections of pleasure, healing and visioning in movement-building—all through the lens of Black Feminist resistance. Come through for good food and grounded conversation among artists, organizers and friends imagining the future.
THE DAY’S SCHEDULE
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This session will teach us how to take care of our mental and emotional health as we sustain wins and losses in our movements. We'll talk about building emotional literacy when doing activating work, media literacy around cultural messages designed to make us despair, cultivating joy, and accessing hope as a building block to our new world!
Leaning on Highlander Center’s organizing values, this session will be led by Dr. Seyi Amosu.
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Join us for a workshop led by Irma Garcia of Dirty South Sex Ed and Eden Hakimzadeh of Lavender Orange.
The primary objective of this workshop is to create a safe and supportive space for participants to explore and understand their experiences of pleasure through the practice of pleasure mapping.
By integrating the principles of a sister circle, we aim to foster a sense of community and collective connection, knowing that our liberation is interconnected. This sister circle is inclusive and welcoming to all who identify as women and femmes—it's a sister circle, not a cis-ter circle. To truly gain from this experience, we invite each person to participate in whatever way feels right—whether by sharing, listening, or simply being present—recognizing that our mutual engagement enriches the journey for everyone. Participants will learn what pleasure mapping is and why it is an essential practice for self-awareness and personal growth.
The workshop will culminate in a collective reflection within the sister circle, where participants can share their insights, affirm each other's experiences, and close with a grounding exercise. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a deeper understanding of their own pleasure, the clarity to express their needs and boundaries, and a sense of collective solidarity and support from their community.
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Five O Four is an upcoming food truck concept in Austin, Texas. Created by Chef Grace Aguilar, the truck will feature menu items representing her Honduran and South Louisana roots.
Come through in between sessions for a complimentary taste of Chef Grace's food, as well as a moment to connect with each other and FutureLand's facilitators.
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At the vanguard of radical leftist Black feminist thought and behavior, the Combahee River Collective has and continues to make an indelible mark on Black feminist movements and beyond.”
-@blackwomenradicals
“The point of talking about Combahee is not to be nostalgic; rather, we talk about it because Black women are still not free"
-Demita Frazier
In the 50th Year of Combahee we bring together Jaimee Swift of BlackWomenRadicals and Monaye Johnson of Black Reading To Heal to address the Combahee River Collective Statement. Each facilitator will focus on a separate section of the Combahee River Collective Statement, with a copy of the full text provided to each attendee as a reference.
The conversation will include asides on Black Feminisms, the misuse of “identity politics”, and thoughts on the bridge between then and now. Attendees are encouraged to consider what ideas are expressed in the text that further our understanding of Black Feminism, key details that stand out to you, as well as the sociocultural context of the production of this text.
Attendees will receive: Copy of CRC statement, copy of National Black Feminist Organization statement
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We'll close out the day with a short, five-minute group walk to the neighborhood's ATX Free Fridge next to Nixta Taqueria.
MEET THE FEATURED GUESTS
Seyi Amosu is a licensed psychologist (in Georgia and New York) with a background in community organizing. Her personal and professional roles are centered on the goal of liberation. For Dr. Seyi, liberation means all of our needs are abundantly met, especially our need for wellness. Seyi believes that wellness is something we achieve collectively, and that so much of what causes mental unwellness stems from systemic violence, and the ways oppressive systems permeate our communities, our hearts and our minds. In her generalist training, she specialized in sexual trauma, gender-based violence, and identity development. Dr. Seyi loves facilitating because it give her the opportunity to be in learning spaces that aren't evaluative, and to learn collaboratively alongside folks with whom she is sharing space. Black futurist and science fiction writer Octavia Butler wrote "Everything you touch you change / everything you change changes you." Seyi approaches all learning spaces with the belief that we all have something to teach each other.
Irma is the director of reproductive health & education services at Jane's Due Process, where she has dedicated five years to advancing the organization's mission. In her role, she facilitates access to abortion care, teaches sex education, and leads a team committed to providing comprehensive pregnancy support. With a professional background in centering sexuality and reproductive justice issues in marginalized communities, Irma has established herself as a prominent voice both locally and nationally.
Her work is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves not only access to reproductive health services but also the opportunity to experience pleasure and well-being. She is also the visionary behind Dirty South Sex Ed on Instagram, a platform designed to cultivate a culture of pleasure, wellness, and sexual freedom, free from stigma, among marginalized communities.
Eden Hakimzadeh (she/they) is the voice of the lavender orange, an audio newsletter that centers Black ecology, eco-somatics, earth-centered literature and the grief work of moving through heartbreak.
Currently living & working in Tampa, FL as a beach babe, community book club host and intentional gathering event manager.
You can follow their work via @edenhakimzadeh on ig and let them read to you via @thelavenderorange on substack.
Jaimee A. Swift (she/her) is the executive director and founder of Black Women Radicals, a Black feminist advocacy organization dedicated to uplifting and centering Black women and gender expansive people's radical activism in Africa and in the African Diaspora. She is also the creator and founder of The School for Black Feminist Politics, the Black feminist political education arm of Black Women Radicals. She is the co-author, with Joseph R. Fitzgerald, of the forthcoming biography of Black feminist icon Barbara Smith. She is the co-curator of the Black Feminists Taught Me campaign, a t-shirt capsule and collaboration between Black Women Radicals and Philadelphia PrintWorks, which is living, breathing, and travel exhibition and archive paying homage to the Black women and gender expansive people who inspire us, touch our lives, and shape our politics. Swift is an Assistant Professor of Black Politics in the Department of Political Science at James Madison University.
Monaye Johnson is a Africana Studies doctoral student at Brown University. She is a writer, researcher, cultural worker and former organizer. Her work looks at Black feminisms, care ethics/care economy, reproductive justice, the inner workings of Black people.
You can follow her work via @blackreadingtoheal on Instagram
how to attend
This event is free. RSVPs are required.
*If you are a Future Front member, this event is free and priority access for you and your guests. Please access your membership at members.futurefronttexas.org or futurefrontmembership.squarespace.com for more details.
PREPARE YOUR VISIT TO THE FUTURE FRONT HOUSE.
The Future Front House is located at 1900 E. 12th Street within the historic East 12th Street District.
WHERE TO PARK: The Future Front House has a large paid parking lot across the street and is directly accessible by bus line. There’s also free parking up and down the street and in surrounding neighborhoods. Carpool, if you can!
WHAT TO DO: The Future Front House is located within the historic East 12th Street District, which is home to many other creative spaces and businesses, as well as organizations like Six Square. Explore the District while you’re around.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES — ASL interpreters can be provided upon request. Si necesita traducción al español para participar en este evento, envíenos un correo electrónico a hello@futurefronttexas.org.
OUR COMMUNITY SAFETY GUIDELINES —
This event will require masking for the safety all participating, as well as our facilitators traveling in from many states.
All Future Front staff, volunteers and guests will be required to practice mutual respect, as well as demonstrate an alignment with Future Front’s code of conduct and values.
Capacity is limited to reduce crowding of any kind and all events will be held in primarily outdoor and open-air spaces or have access to proper ventilations and well-maintained A/C systems.
At Future Front events, all guests are expected to follow Austin-local health and safety guidelines for gatherings, as well as practice consideration with the consumption of tobacco, alcohol and any other legal, mind-altering or dangerous substances and objects. This includes:
As Future Front strives to be a good neighbor, we also discourage the use of tobacco products on the property of nearby businesses and residences, to improve air quality, throughout our events.
Tobacco use and electronic smoking device use are not permitted at any time within Future Front properties and event spaces at least 15 ft from entrances, exits, operational windows, or ventilation system intake vents.
Littering of tobacco-related products on the grounds or parking lots is also prohibited.
Concealed or open weapons and firearms (including handguns) are not allowed at any Future Front venues.
GOT QUESTIONS? Shoot us a note at hello@futurefronttexas.org. We're happy to help and will get back to you!
behind HIGHLANDER CENTER
Highlander is the Movement School training the next generation of movement leaders.
Rooted in Southern Appalachia, and grounded in a 90-year practice of participatory research and popular education, we incubate and develop the movements that drive us from the world we inherited to the one we deserve.
We are a team of movement veterans, organizers, researchers, educators, and artists activating diverse voices across the South, the nation, and around the world to lead winning movements. Learn more at highlandercenter.org.
behind FUTURE FRONT
Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning culture space and exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front.
As an arts and culture nonprofit, we produce two community-led exhibitions, The Front Market and The Front Festival. Beyond our flagship showcases, we host year-round shows and workshops at our creative space in historic East Austin, welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year.
Everybody and every body are welcome. Learn more at futurefronttexas.org.
THE FUTURE FRONT HOUSE IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY THE CITY OF AUSTIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, TITO’S HANDMADE VODKA, TOPO CHICO, AS WELL AS FUTURE FRONT’S DONORS AND MEMBERS. THANK YOU!