Co-Creation as Future-Building

This entry is sourced from Alyssa’s care culture newsletter.

As I excitedly share with you that the Libertroph Magazine call for submissions is open, I’m filled with so much gratitude for the co-creation process that brought us here. 

Julienne and I met as white colleagues on a team working toward racial equity. As our work became increasingly nuanced and our relationship deepened, we decided to become accountability buddies – a concept introduced to the organization by some of our colleagues of color. That meant we would lean on each other to notice, name, and process the ways that Internalized Racial Superiority was showing up in and through us. We’d be the ones to call each other out if no one else got to it first, and the ones to hold the emotional labor of witnessing and supporting each other so our colleagues of color didn't have to do that work (though, of course, sometimes they did and still do). 

Repeatedly over the years Julienne and I engaged in Undoing Racism, MosaicEye programs, and Somatic Abolitionism. These spaces deeply shaped us. They taught us what true liberation work can look like, both in how we heal our bodies from the toxicity of internalized racism and in how we responsibly and effectively organize in multi-racial coalitions. They also challenged us to confront our roles in white collectives. 

As we dreamt of more effective and ambitious white anti-racist organizing spaces, we continued to find ourselves in our questions. How and where can we learn from the efforts of our white anti-racist elders and ancestors? Where can we find stories about all the ways white people are trying to redistribute wealth to Black and Indigenous people? What experiments are white people engaging with to disrupt white dominant culture? At a certain point, we decided we should create the space and trust that the stories will emerge. 

So here we are: the launch of Libertroph Magazine! 

Libertroph Magazine is a collection of art and stories about white anti-racist organizing efforts past and present. It is a reckoning with what white culture is and what exists beyond it. And it is an invitation for more white people to take up the life-giving work of anti-racist organizing.

Please take a few minutes to explore the stunning website Julienne designed. And if you have a story, poem, recipe, song, painting, or other creative expression to share, please do! The call for submissions is open all summer (until October 1) and any expression of art or writing that relates to the theme of white anti-racist organizing or culture-building (even if you don’t describe it in that language) is valid and welcomed.

Co-creating this project with Julienne is future-building practice. We spend sufficient time dreaming, but we notice and name when we’re trending toward inaction and complacency. We challenge each other on language that feels paternalistic or appropriative. We hold our meetings via phone (no video), often while we’re on walks in our respective neighborhoods or sitting under the sun. We extend grace and care as each of us navigates various forms of grief and transition that cause “delays.” Throughout the co-creation process and as we move into the next stage of this project, honoring human needs is always more important than timelines or work plans (actually we never even made a work plan for this hehe). 

Discovering new ways of being in creative partnership is part of my work to shape care culture. As I imagine white anti-racist culture, I see care. I see checking-in, remembering details about each other’s lives, and grieving lost Palestinian lives before we orient toward a future where genocide is a dark memory from a distant past. I see the courage to lean into tension, the expression of clear and direct boundaries, and an abundance of creativity flowing from each of our hearts and hands. 

What do you see? How are you shaping care culture in service of a world where our Black and Indigenous neighbors are safe, and therefore we are all safe? The world needs to hear your stories, visions, and experiments. What better time to share than now? 

With care, 

Alyssa