Skylark- Radically Reimagining Work, Rest, and Liberation

Describe yourself in three words.

Curious, empathetic, alchemist.

Tell us about the work you brought into the first cohort of the Rhizomatic Imagination network Fellowship and why this work is important to you?

I am a creative who has been moving, shaking and shaping the food justice landscape in NYC for over 10 years. An alchemist, like my ancestors, I harness my rich identities and experiences to create thoughtful, timely disruptions. I proudly bring tireless empathy, curiosity and introspection to everything I do. Through my work, I bridge worlds, senses and people. Ultimately, I strive to create dynamic, interactive experiences that attach and relate people to this earth.

This work is important to me because it is what I am meant to do. When everything is quiet or too loud this work still calls me. I am a communicator. I am a connector.

Explain to us why you are doing this work and at what stage you are in your process.

This work calls me and feels right but it is also needed. We need to disrupt with softness and expanding introspection. We need to practice visibility so that others may be seen.

I’m always working on a project of some sort, but this marks the very beginning of the externalization of some of my innermost thoughts.

How would you describe Story-based Strategy (SBS) to someone who has never heard about it?

Imagine if the profundity and wonder of storytelling from childhood could be restored and intentionally integrated into your navigating the world. It is pretty incredible.

How did SBS affect your work on the project? What SBS tools did you use or center in to move forward your fellowship work?

SBS truly grounded me in such a tricky and fun way. Many of the tools I learned to use helped to focus my mind and sharpen my words. Exercises like conveying my project idea in just five sentences or examining story arcs in relation to the dominant narrative I am challenging strengthened my articulation muscle for sure.

Can you tell us more about your Skylark project?

Women and femmes are more likely to experience hunger. They are also most responsible for moving food from earth to table and sustaining the health and well-being of their families. Through an interactive gallery walk and collective narrative visioning session, Skylark aims to inspire and equip femme food workers of color, especially Black femmes, to divest from capitalism in their daily lives and explore their value outside labor. This is an opportunity to be in the community and explore Black liberation in a tangible and intentional way. To pause, reflect, and imagine new ways forward as we navigate the mass trauma of surviving a global pandemic and discover what lies beyond the resulting lull in capitalism.

If you could have another iteration of your work, how would it have changed?

I would focus a lot more on the intersection between social programs that cities and counties are able to fund with economic justice. This past couple of months it has been more on the forefront of our work specifically because we got a grant for economic justice. We never think that cities and counties could have an impact on people’s day-to-day economic lives. We just kind of accept the fact that the Dow is down and therefore inflation is up. And what can you do about it?

That intersection between what’s possible politically to support economic justice of the everyday workers is something that I really look into. And that’s exciting because you get to work with unions. You get to work with folks that just have a different lens, right?

How was working on this project, using SBS, different from your work without SBS?

Having SBS as a North Star was an extremely transformative part of the creative process for me. Having SBS as a sort of undercurrent to the flow of my project really helped me to stay focused, challenge myself and think outside of myself. It also helped me table ideas to build upon in the future. Without SBS I wouldn’t have had this unique and nuanced lens to focus my project along with exercises to guide my challenges.

Share how folks can get involved with your work or see your work’s final product.

You can keep up with me @itsduppy on IG.