Recently, in a local coffee shop, I noticed that a young male barista had a tattoo on his forehead that read No Future. I began to wonder, what it means, in this political and cultural moment, to imagine a future? Has the future already been colonized? What’s more, who has the right to imagine it?
As we experience cultural chaos and environmental upheaval, or in the words of writer and activist, Arundhati Roy, “As the ice caps melt, as oceans heat up, and water tables plunge, as we rip through the delicate web of interdependence that sustains life on earth, as our formidable intelligence leads us to breach the boundaries between humans and machines…”[1] the future is no longer a given. In response to recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights, a colleague said, “it is much easier to imagine a world in which our rights are revoked, versus a world in which they are revered.” When we consider the histories of patriarchy, colonization and genocide that have plagued New Mexico, and understand that many of the communities that were slated for extinction through the project of colonization are here today, it becomes clear that reclaiming imagination is a courageous and fierce act of resistance.
Writer, activist, healer, adrienne marie brown writes that, “all organizing is science fiction…social justice work is about creating systems of justice and equity in the future, creating conditions that we have never experienced.” At NewMexicoWomen.Org (NMW.O), the only statewide women’s fund, we have never experienced gender justice, or a world free of patriarchy, yet we work toward that vision daily. Our work is rooted in an imagination of a future that is just and sustainable for all communities, where self-identifying women and girls are thriving, and are the agents of their own lives.
NMW.O’s 2019 grantmaking program invests in the future, when we center adolescent girls of color, because we believe in their leadership and expertise. We believe in their futures. Additionally, we know that fostering healthy masculinity is essential to achieving gender justice. So, in coalition with community partners, NMW.O is working on a research project that explores masculinity, and the effects of patriarchy on men and boys. History has shown us that even the most traumatized social systems are able to heal when love and justice are present. That is why NMW.O invests in the health and well-being of those working for gender justice through our Healing and Self Care Awards. The social change efforts we invest in today, seed the future we are cultivating for generations to come.
At NMW.O, and in movement work at large, our imaginations are our most powerful tools. We must resist the impulse to declare ‘no future’, or to let a patriarchal, racist, all-consuming capitalist vision further colonize our true potential. NMW.O invites you to join the movement for gender justice, because together we are growing a more just, sustainable, and abundant future for all peoples and communities in New Mexico. And what choice do we have in these complex times, but to continue to work for justice, resist structures of oppression, build relationships, heal the past and try our best to love?
By Sarah Ghiorse, Executive Director of NewMexicoWomen.Org
[1] From Arundhati Roy’s delivery of the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem New York, May 12 2019.
[2] brown, adrienne marie, Emergent Strategy, Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017).