From the early 2000s until 2015, before I started making films, I was a community organizer for Black, trans, queer, gender nonconforming, and disabled communities. It was in that context that I learned about freedom dreaming. Freedom dreams are born when we face harsh conditions not with despair, but with the deep knowledge that these conditions will change— that a world filled with softness and beauty and care is not only possible, but inevitable.

Freedom dreaming starts with asking questions, often the same questions, over and over, allowing ourselves to get deeper each time. Coming out of the long tradition of Freedom Schools, I focused on these three questions as an organizer: What does the dominant culture have that we want?⁣ What does the dominant culture have that we don’t want?⁣ What do we have that we want to keep?⁣ These days, it is the third question that preoccupies me.

The thing is, freedom dreaming isn’t just about the big things—the huge world changes that we are manifesting in our movements, like police and prison abolition, free universal healthcare, and gender self-determination for all. When I give myself permission to slow down like this—and particularly, when I wonder what we already have that we want to keep—what I always notice are the small things. (Or I should say: What seem like the small things, but really are the big things! The everyday acts of liberatory glamour, care, and openness that keep us alive.) I notice how much I am already surrounded by the world I dream of. Read more via Vogue