Abolitionist Design
Terresa MosesAbout this video
In a world where 84% of ads are never seen, most brands are functionally invisible. Good design has the power to fight invisibility — arresting our attention, creating meaning without interruption and communicating in ways most brand marketers only dream of. But beyond fighting invisibility, design has the power to use invisibility. In recent years neuroscientists and behavioral economists have confirmed what philosophers and artists have long known — we are not thinking creatures who feel; we are feeling beings who post-rationalize our experience. In this session we will explore the power of design to create brand worlds that resonate on unconscious levels. We'll discuss ways to use the invisible facets of emotion to create visibility for clients.
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Stresa is the creative tractor Blackboard Revolt a social
justice based design studio and an assistant professor of
graphic design and the director of design Justice
at the University of Minnesota.
As a community engaged scholar, she created project natural which
captures which creates spaces to
educate connect and Empower black women about their natural hair
and self-identity.
And racism untaught which is a curriculum model that
reveals racialized design and helps students Educators
and organizations create anti-racist
Concepts through the design research process.
She's currently a PhD candidate in social justice
education at the University of Toronto.
She also serves as a core team member of African American
graphic designers or the aagd and
as a collaborator with the black liberation lab, please
join me in welcoming Teresa to the state.
Okay, there's a second little thing here. I'm
confused.
Okay. Hi everyone. How are
y'all? Y'all doing good. I know it's after lunch.
Y'all got a y'all got I need like the amens the claps. I need
that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. I want to start off first with some
gratitude. I know we did sort of a landing management at the
beginning of the conference, which I really appreciate but I also want to acknowledge my
ancestors. I want to acknowledge the historical Freedom
Fighters and abolitionists with
you know, which I would not be here today if it
hadn't been for their continual fighting and I also want to recognize my
Thank you girl, look at me.
Okay, so why am I speaking to you all today? I
had a really great introduction. Thank you so much, but
Yeah, I'm a Minneapolis space abolitionist organizer.
I also am a lifelong learner at the
University of Toronto right now, which is kind of funny and
I'm an educator. I'm in
the classroom, you know each semester like a
lot of Educators that might be here today and then I'm a designer.
I'm a design researcher and illustrator and I use
those as tools to you know,
craft positive change in community.
All right, so I'm here to talk about abolition and I
feel like the word abolition, you know has become
this sort of mainstream thing that folks are kind of, you know becoming aware
of but it is a very old term, you know,
and we talk about abolition. We talk about, you know,
the history of slavery all those things. So I'm here to talk
to you about that connection between abolition.
And design and if you are not an abolitionist.
You should be.
I mean it's a very
long process, you know, it's it's a constant commitment.
But essentially what you're saying is you're acknowledging
that institutions that we are in are
builts on the foundation of slavery on
the foundation of Oppression. And those systems are not meant for anyone
right myself included everyone here.
The system doesn't necessarily care about us.
Before I move forward I do want to just let
folks know that.
I do not have all the answers. This is not like
these solution or racism would be solved.
I only offer these as humble
tools for you to use in your
own fights against systems of Oppression.
So that's the disclaimer. I don't
have all the answers or the solution. So in the
presentation today, I'll be talking about the system.
I'll be addressing your agency and
then also the collective vision.
Okay, first let's talk about the system.
Because it is wild.
Okay, the system, you know
was is here again oppressing every
single person even if you don't feel like you necessarily are
affected by it you are and I
love the way Bell hooks describes what the system is.
I want to get it right white supremist capitalist patriarchy
and I love the way that she describes that because she's talking
about really the the intersection of that oppression and
how it's not just one thing right? It's not just racism. I really
like the last the lightning talk that
talked about how environmentalism and racism are like really entertained.
Yes. Absolutely. So it's not just one
thing that is oppressing us and then we all need to be fighting
against it's a myriad of things and it's continuous.
It's pervasive. It's manipulative and
it does not care about any of us.
So, like I said, I am a minneapolis-based
and I'm sure
you all know some stuff that's happened in Minneapolis recently. So
on May th.
George Floyd and unarmed black man was murdered
by Minneapolis Police.
for allegedly presenting a counterfeit $bill
I think that.
Talks a lot about racism but also our value
on lives versus property, right?
Um, just under a year later on April th.
Dante Wright was an
unarmed black man in a car with an air freshener.
And was pulled over and killed by Brooklyn Center
Police, which is a police department that is right next
to Minneapolis. So everyone that was there at Minneapolis
in the streets is going to be there in Brooklyn Center.
And then this year Amir luck.
I was sleeping when police came into his
house and murdered him.
Okay. So this is this is the reflection
of the system right? These are the things that are happening right
now that we should really be concerned about.
so
I you know, I live in Minneapolis when
I was at I was
kind of halfway in Duluth, Minnesota and in Minneapolis and so
I was organizing a lot of protests and actions up
there in Duluth. And then I moved down to Minneapolis specifically
around Dante Wright. I was
already using this type. I created this type as a way for me to
kind of
Process everything's happening the hatred for black
people, you know in the country in the
world and I created this type
and it was really just a reflection of what community had already been saying, which
is stop killing black people.
You know, we've been saying a lot of things, you know, black lives matter all those things.
But this in particular was a phrase that like always was
ringing in my ear as I was in the front lines
of protest. So when Dante Wright happened, you know
it was
Coal or in Minneapolis. It was cold. It was
rainy people had their cardboard signs out there. We
were in front of the police station and they
had their gates in their barbed wire and they had all their militarized stuff
out there. And this is some of the things that they
were these were some of the phrases that they were chanting here.
And so while we were still mourning George Floyd and Derek
Chavin hadn't been on trial yet. We had this
new murder of Dante Wright and I was as I was there with other
community organizers one thing that we started
to do was gather up supplies. Same thing. We did in Gathering up
supplies for Frontline protesters. Like I
said, it was cold. So we have the, you know, the heating pads for
hands and for feet, you know, we were trying to
get umbrellas to protect us from chemical warfare because that's something
that Minneapolis Police love to do is used tear gas.
So we're using we're trying to gather up all
these things. We had, you know donations coming in all of that to help
us in surviving out there
trying to protest for justice.
And one thing that I
did see as a design problem was hey, it's like rainy and
cold and so all of these signs these cardboard signs. They're all
like melting right people don't actually know what we're saying and
we know that we use the press as a way for folks
to see what it is that we're wanting what it is that we're demanding. What is
the issue that's going on a matter of fact when I pulled up here in
the airport. There was protests happening at the airport,
you know, so people use signs as a
way for us to take photos of those document what's
going on?
So one of the things that folks were saying was stop killing black people along with like
people over property, you know, a lot of phrases that
we had been saying, but we wanted to amplify and
so I used design as a way to create those. So
I thought it's raining it's cold. Let's
create signs that are waterproof.
So that's what we did. We ended up doing that. I said,
let's close ourselves with warmer clothing.
That's what we did.
So we worked with printers in
the area to print a ton of free stuff.
And so it was only available to protest her. So if
you have it you were most likely there and so we
printed a ton of free hoodies signs buttons
all kinds of stuff and again got a
lot of media attention really unifying and amplifying the
message.
I think this is such a cool shot like the police
right there with like this vehicle. We're screaming
out Justice for Dante Wright.
Stop killing black people black lives matter all of the same things that
folks we have been saying.
but just using design as a way to sort of unify that
and a lot of folks are able to kind of take these signs put them
up in their cars. I mean, I I'm driving in Minneapolis. I will
absolutely see, you know, this the use of this type somewhere.
It'll be on the this picture right here with the no justice
no piece that was on the front page of the newspaper when Derek Chauvin
actually was convicted which is Nuance in itself,
right because it's punitive system. We don't like that either but a little
bit of Justice happening.
Yeah.
One thing that this type is also used for is
not just like to talk about all of the bad things that are going on but
also a little bit of Joy y'all know Common the rapper.
Yeah. Okay. So we was out there, right and
we had a table and common came up, you know,
we're like his little crew. I guess like to protect him. I don't know
and he came up and he like gave us a little twenty
dollar bill and like took a shirt. It was so exciting and then he was on stage with
the shirt. And so we also use that
type of way to sort of Express that joy and that freedom, right? This
is the day this is like I think a day after Derek shelvin
was convicted and we had this amazing commemoration for
George Floyd and common was there.
Also folks in community took the type. It
took the type. They applied it to the own thing their
own things that they do. So I have assignmaker who I
know Kelsey sharp and she took
the type and she used on a banner. We have businesses who would take
the type print out a whole bunch of posters and post them all over, you know
their wall and then you know, I had a fashion designer
here. It was Fashion Week happening like right around that time that
same time they took the type and they put it
on a jacket that they made.
So I had a lot of folks a lot of other organizers and a lot of folks who are
like organizers and and designers like I am want to
use the type. So I was like sure.
So I made a nice little style guide
with this type here and it's available free. I
you know have a whole little system here.
You can you know piece together whatever letters
you want. You know, I have really cool little phrases in
the in there, you know hidden messages and it's
awesome. So take your phones out. You can grab it.
You know, you have to use it for abolition purposes though. You
know, I want to see like somebody's birthday card with the name.
Don't do that to my stuff. Okay?
All right. So while you still have your phones out when we're talking
about the system you really have to be educated. So keep those funds out and take
a picture.
of this reading list
Yeah.
So those of you who are so interested in becoming an abolitionist, which
I know you are because I'm up here talking about it. Um,
this is just some stuff to get you started definitely not an exhaustive list,
right? But just some stuff to get you started abolition is
really not as complicated as we think it is. Yes, it's destroying a system
but you're also visioning and dreaming and making something new.
Okay, so educate yourself on.
What's going on?
Also, we want to do some listening. So we're trying
to understand what the system is doing for us and not
for us. We want to listen we want to listen to folks
who have been fighting this fight way longer than
I have. So we want to listen to people of color. We want to listen to
women. We want to listen trans folks. We want to listen to folks with disabilities.
You want to listen to queer folks. We want
to listen to all the folks who have who have a different lens on oppression than
perhaps we do and that's gonna help us when you know
crafting this amazing design solution, which I feel like
we're going to create one day, but we
just have to listen to the folks who are actually being harmed by
the system.
And we also want to listen to our leaders too. You know, what are
the leaders saying? And that actually brings me to my next Point. Let's do some watching,
you know, there's a lot of stuff happening in media folks
can you know say whatever they
want, you know say it's for some just
reason for some Jesus reason. I don't know and we
really need to be you know coherent we're
hearing those messages and we also need to be coherent
when people say things and how well
it aligns with what they're doing. Okay, so we don't want
performative activism happening, right? We want to be able to watch and
see what folks are actually doing. You know what that work.
Um, but I have to hang on to hope I feel like if you are
an organized if you're an activist, if you're doing stuff for justice, even environmentalism no
matter all of the negative stuff that's happening. You have to hang on
to hope so I love this quote. It's by my good friend Antoinette Carol.
She is the founder and creator of creative reaction
lab, which is a lot of social justice based stuff
and she says like all systems systems of
Oppression and Equity inequality. They
are by Design therefore they can be redesigned and so
I feel like that's a call to action to us as designers
to be able to use our skills and
our creative problem solving all of our amazing abilities to begin
to reimagine what
these systems could look like.
That's my next Point agency. Okay, use
your agency. Literally some of
you actually have agencies.
Use them use them
for the greater. Good. Okay, but really
what I mean by this is your positionality your identity who
you are and if you're waiting for someone to Grant you
permission to use your agency to like fight against the
system.
Permission granted. Okay, we need
you. And so this is a call to action
for you to show up in this case.
Yes, all lives do matter because we need your life to
help us in this fight.
So when I talk about agency first point here
is positionality your positionality. I'm sure some
of you've heard this term that really really really really
matters because your lens is going to you know, begin to
craft what your outcomes are. And so first you
understand who you are and what you've
got, you know, you've heard maybe that circle of influence, you
know, who are you? Who do you know and what can you begin to use?
Especially when things pop off right?
and you can actually use design to help you discover that so
what was mentioned in my bio is this solo exhibition
Umbra that I had created and it was really
a project to like
Empower black women and help other folks in communities
understand how they contribute to healing or the harm this
intersectional identity and it was a great way
for me to bring folks together, but also write for me
to investigate who I was as a black queer woman
and I encourage you all to use design to do
that as well. What is it that you have in your
past? What a biases where you brought up in what things
did you learn that you can discover and
begin to break down and then help other people break that down.
right
So Umbra was or is
an exhibition you can go to Umbra
exhibit.com if you want to see more of these images, but it
broke down identity in
six different ways. And I kind of touch on some
things like, you know, mortality rates and you know
birthing trauma and the burden of black women and
control from religious systems and then always there's a
piece of thinking about what could be
so I have
My six themes up here. I talked about racial gaze.
Some of these things can be attributed to you know,
says women the control.
Like I said, I'm not just religious institutions, but institutions in
general save your complex this role
that black women often are in to save communities
danger this black
woman stereotype of being an angry black woman the burden
this idea that we have to hold up this
broken system while having to also create a brand new
one. That's an interesting burden and Liberation. I
love to imagine what things could
be. So that's the kind of hope that I kind of hang on.
But my purpose in that is that
identity really does matter. Like I said, it's going to help craft those
outcomes. So you as a designer, you know that your
lens is going to affect your physical outcomes
in your work. It's also going to affect your actions
and your words those outcomes as
well as a community member.
But like Deepa ire States, we all
play different roles in pursuit of equity Liberation inclusion
and Justice Deepa Iyer
is the creator of this social
change ecosystem, which is a really amazing
tool for you to get started and find out what your role is. She
has a lot of amazing prompts and questions to help
you begin visioning and thinking about what role it
is that I play what roles that maybe people push you into as well
like that's not cool to be exhausted doing
this work. So it's really an amazing feat for
you to figure out who you are on your own terms. And
this is a really great way to do that.
Now as you all are finding out who you are
how you're going to use design to help conquer and destroy
the system. You want to make space. You want
to make space for your mess-ups, you know,
you want to make space for the times you get it
right? You want to make space for other people, especially when
you have areas of privilege in your identity and you
want to make space to infiltrate these systems. We have
to do it like on this weird parallel Continuum of
like actually being in the system of capitalism, but also
being like f*** capitalism, you know, so you
want you want to make that space and if you know,
they don't give you space.
You can do like Shirley Chisholm Hill and bring your
own damn chair or just just break the
whole table burn it down make your own s***. You know,
that's what you can do destroy the
table.
or be designers
you can craft and create and
we have so much amazing problem-solving ability if
we all kind of gather together and you know,
we're really
thinking about the same vision, you know, imagine what we could create we're
smarter than the system. So use
that power that you have as a designer.
This is a quote that I really love by WB Du
Bois that's all art is propaganda and ever must
be I do not care damn for any art that is
not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is
confined to one side while the other is stripped in
silent and we know the side that's stripped in silent, right
the folks who's narrative doesn't get told the folks
who have been yelling and crying and wailing at
the front of the police Gates and
are not being heard. So we have to use that power that
we have and also,
We're here to start the piece. That's what
we're that's over here for you have this ability you have this amazing gift
use it?
That reason to my last Point here, which is Vision. Okay,
so we talked about system. We talked
about our agency and the vision now understanding what the vision
is is really going to help us in staying focused. Remember
the first project that I showed about the you know,
stop killing black people. What we were trying to do with
those words is try to create some type of uniformed vision.
And so that's what I want you all to begin to think
about making rooms for burning something
down so that we can create something new that should be
exciting to folks right? It's like when you get a client brief, you're like, oh
my gosh, this could be so amazing and then they like say make it
pop or something.
So so one way in which I like
to vision is by creating spaces and
rooms and Gatherings for
folks to really begin to think about themselves. I'm
especially if they're living in the marginalized identity and
one of the ways I did that it was through project natural and
project natural was a way for me to
I talked to like over black women. It's very
amazing how similar our experiences
are especially when it comes to hair discrimination.
You know in the United States, it was just this past year that we just got a
law passed that folks cannot discriminate based on
our hair, you know, which seems like it
should have happened a long time ago, but this literally just happened and so
project natural was like a call, you know again for me
to do some of my own searching which I think is super important, but then
also to bridge out to community so as
an educator I had to have these elements of educating within there
that you'll see in just a second.
But I'm a designer. I mean
illustrator and so what I decided to do is I wanted to
have a fashion background. Can you
tell and what I
wanted to do was like I was thinking about like fashion magazines and
like, you know feeling like when I looked at something I
was like, oh like that's what I want to be and I wanted to show black women
and black hairstyles in this
a really amazing light, you know, I want to
look like a front of a magazine. I also included like quotes from people
and things that they were saying about their natural hair. This is
one my favorite ones. There's a there's a fine line between looking
fashionable and looking homeless with natural hair. Like that's
a real struggle like, you know waking up and not
feeling like you even like the way that you look and so
there was just a lot of these, you know, a lot of these quotes a lot of things that folks
were saying,
That I wanted to you know, sort of put here on
these posters and I started off with and
the illustrations here. The hair is made
out of feathers. There's like a hundred and thirty seven different textures
of hair in the black community.
So I started off with these.
Moved on to what are these leaves leaves
in the next round of and then
these ones included kids which really got to the
intergenerational part there and these were flower petals.
And so super excited to be able to educate
with this tell how similar our experiences are to
one another and then also with that we
did like workshops. We have people come in teach folks how
to break teach folks, you know, what products to use in their hair
things like that. So this was a really great way of building community
and then after this we got to do a whole
fashion show
it
you
know
I like always want to like cry when I see the little kids and they're
just like
You know feeling all cute, I love that but for me
when I think about like the vision, I feel like there's a lot
of spaces where you know, we can feel free
like that. You know, we can dance down the the runway, you
know, we don't have to just walk and we can have
this this woman her name as Paula
and she's years old and you
know came into the project and really showed like this really intergenerational connection
was amazing. But to me
what that says is freedom
And when I think about a vision freedom is
one of the things I think about I've been talking a lot lately. I'm
like writing a book. I know too much. I know I'm writing
a book and I've been talking a lot about the gray
area. And when I think about freedom I think
about the gray area like the Nuance
of your identity and playing,
you know, again that parallel sort of
relationship and so I just want to say like when I
think about Freedom like also consider everything there's just
definitely not a black and white solution. No
matter that. My whole presentation is black and
white but
It's not it's nice. Not that clear-cut, right? So consider
that gray area when you think about freedom and then really
commit
when you find a vision, hopefully you're finding that
with community and you all are imagining and thinking about that together
commit to it.
Commit to it commit to that in your work commit to
accountability a commit to Healing from trauma
commit to commit to
it all.
And so Audrey Lord says what we
must do is commit ourselves to some future that can
include each other and to work toward that future with
the particular strengths of our individual identities.
So in conclusion my first in conclusion, you want
to disrupt dismantle and destroy.
Okay, you want to disrupt the status quo?
We want to dismantle the systems of Oppression.
And we want to destroy everything.
Okay with vision though, okay with vision. All right,
because this is what we want. We want Collective Liberation
a future where you know, we are all free from
violence right where we all get our physical and mental and
emotional and spiritual needs meant does that sound amazing? You
know, this is what we want. We want to be able to create and move together
to heal together and we want communities that are
based in love and compassion and equity and Justice.
That's that's what I'm thinking about when I
think about the vision.
So my real in conclusion.
This is what we should be doing as designers, but for Liberation, right?
Okay. Thank you.
I got us chairs. We got
you. I got us chair. I requested
this, you know, and I said my Collective Liberation
looks like I'm sitting down.
so
Well, you pointed out that you just performed for us. I did
minutes I did so and that you deserve
to become female. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate that this
little Ally right here.
Wow, if it was that easy, no
for real. Thank you for sharing so
much of that to our audience listening. You can tweet questions. I've
seen a couple of them come in already using the hashtag rgdt
Folks at home the chat box use it
I will take a look at these things. But okay, I
have like backstage. I asked you if there any
questions you wanted me to ask. Can you like? Oh, you'll you'll find some and
I want to take a quick sec.
To point out because a handful of other presenters
have pointed at the typefaces that they were using mostly designed
by white folks and you were using one bigger.
Yes, I was I faces which was
designed based on the Freedom protests,
right?
Yeah, so hopefully you folks are
familiar with Trey's work vocal type.
We're straight based.
Oh, I can't remember. I know we spoke. He
spoke at last year's because I thinkers you can go back and watch that if you
want, but
he pulls a revives type
faces from from Old American activist.
With a very specific focus on black activism. Yeah,
it was cool to see that. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for noticing
that I think I think when we think about like Liberation and we
think about using design like it could really be little things like that. Yeah huge.
Well, I think about that all the time and in conversations
I've had with Trey as well about some
of the little things we can do as designers in our
effort to be allies, you know, when we are designing things
for folks that are
outside of our
Community looking for those spaces to incorporate as many
Other artists and influences as we can or the folks to
actually participate in the process and types one of those things. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Anyways, I was so excited
to see that
All right questions.
All right from Twitter.
Okay, this is gonna be one that like % of the room have and
I'm sure you've answered this a million times already. I've been
inspired to use my creative voice in response to social injustice,
but I've stopped myself because I felt uncomfortable speaking
about these issues from a place of privilege.
How can I be sensitive to that and still help?
This is a really good question.
I think
Even though I'm thinking about racial Justice, I'm
not living in a place of privilege. I still took time in
community before I did anything.
A lot of folks are just want to get there and they want to make their social media post and they
want to show like they're really cool design skills and all that
and like have their black squares and I cannot
tell you how annoying that is to see
and how much Community activists are actually making fun of you for
doing that.
and so like I said, I I mean was
probably I lived I've lived in Minnesota for six years the first
year and a half two years was spent on building trust in
community and I feel like there's
there's a lot of that not being done. Like our system doesn't
care about us. It doesn't care about us enough to you know,
say hey, like let's not have guns anymore because like
kids are dying and like if you actually had a relationship with
these families, you might be like pushed to do that a
little bit faster. And so I'd say my the first
step for even me who is a
black woman is to build community because you
don't know what's going on. And so those messages that
I have up there that I created with the type those came from Community. I
was just there to witness it.
And so I think that connection that trust
building is probably number one.
Yeah.
It makes me think a little bit about you know here in Canada
being being outside of the states.
every single
unarmed black man being murdered in the states. We feel really helpless up
here and when we have those conversations, I
think it's always important to remember that while
Racism is Alive and Well in Canada and and
some of our experiences just a little
different everything. You are saying applies to our
relationships with our indigenous communities.
Very much. So exactly so what then
relationships are you all having been with indigenous communities.
Well, and I think that's the question. How are you building those communities?
How are we building those communities and making sure we take time to actually
listen. Yeah, which is
one of the other through threads. I've sort of noticed over the course as
a conference and
too but and you will get into your presentation, beautifully.
Is this taking time to listen and also
looking for moments of like pure love and joy?
That is so important. Like I know I'm like really and
drenched in this work, but I have to roller skating.
That's my thing. Yes so far. Yeah,
I just gotten two new pair and I haven't used them. What color are they
purple and green?
Very important question. I know I know but you have to
find those moments. I'm right now planning this June th event.
That's like
Riddled with all kinds of stuff, but I'm very excited about the joy that's
going to happen. And there's like a roller skate.
It's going to be so awesome. But like those are the moments I'm talking about. Like there's
a whole bunch of s*** happening in Minneapolis. But like where I
can create some Joy or help in that effort.
Got to yeah, okay. I want to talk
about your art. Okay specifically because you talked
about using these art projects as a way to actually interrogate
your identity and how important that is for actually understanding how
your work's going to commit the world your actions and language where
it comes from. What was that experience like for you?
I mean you told us that you did it but actually going in making the
art and interrogating yourself.
I'm
I can't credit this phrase and I can't even say it right because I can't remember it.
But I was in my PhD class and I guess speaker
come in and she talked about when she does her writing and how
the page you just filled with tears.
And I imagine that's kind of the way that I create especially
work like that. Yeah where you're
investigating who you are why it is you are the Way You
Are
I mean, I think that comes with a lot of emotion and I feel like oftentimes we
don't get the chance to feel.
Also get a therapist.
Another conference thing. Thanks for
therapy like seriously, but like, you
know, this is really helped me get in touch with my feelings and be
able to feel like that Umbra show. I was
so angry. I was so angry at all the stuff
that was happening in Minnesota. And so having like
time to be able to dissect those things call it
something was really empowering and then also having that
little sliver I had someone come in and see, you know,
kind of stuff that was creating they were like, well, where's the
Where's the joy part? Like, where's the you know,
and I was like, I don't have joy, you know, but I
forced myself to think about that and I'm really
glad that I did Beyond because visioning Liberation is
like what keeps us going. So so yeah,
I would say like Express all of the feelings, you
know, if you do it privately, you know, I like people see me
cry, but I cry, you know, and and that's okay.
And so I think a lot of these projects that I do
that are personal projects are like really to help me grow and experience
like feeling and be able
to express that to other people because like when I was at the show, of course,
you know black women are coming to me crying and laughing
and all kinds of emotions. And so and and
I think that's the payoff right is you do all the struggling in
that work and then it actually speaks to a lot of other people there's a
Magic Moment sometimes I don't know if you experience it
but where you make all of that work
you go through that experience that process and then
it doesn't feel like yours anymore feel like it belongs to
the community.
Yeah, that's the type. That's the type for sure. Yeah. Yeah,
like something happens and you're like this is theirs.
Yeah, I think that's so cool.
Oh, all right. All right. You guys have questions.
Oh.
Okay, you do so much.
You do a lot of things I know.
What are some of the dreams of yours that
are on hold right now?
Oh, yeah, really want me to cry don't?
Day, you can you can what are some
of the dreams that aren't hold right now or how about future dreams
things are going to do in the next few years.
Take over the world. Now, you know, I honest think
you're already doing that, you know. Yeah. I honestly think about children.
Oh and that's definitely something that I
think as been on a hold for a very long time and it's
because every time you think about our you
see like the little you know, the girls walking down the stage and looking
all cute.
They're black. Another black person gets killed or you
know, you realize that black women are four times more likely to die in
childbirth in the US or you
think about all of the kids that were just shot.
so like I think as I like continue to do this work
like it that sort of like thought
being able to
You know rear children is something that I think is on on
home. Sorry if I'm dampening the mood.
Thank you for sharing that. Mmm. I think
that that's that's something to think about though like as
women as
What's the word ambitious and he want to do stuff?
Sometimes the family stuff does
get put on the back burner? Yeah, and it's not
even because you're ambitious like for me. It really is about like systemic racism.
Yeah, and like thinking about like bring a child
into this world or you know, even adopting a
child like what life am I gonna be able to provide that's not
constantly traumatizing them.
Isn't that one of the for certain
of parenting? This is true, but you
know.
Yeah.
You didn't have to share that. Thank you.
You're welcome. Yeah, I feel like I'm not alone in that
either especially as a marginalized person.
Okay, a lighter one.
Where did you get your earrings from? Okay, I knew
someone was gonna ask it and I'm glad this is a the
garden jewelry store. It is black
and woman owns and I feel like these were
like nine dollars.
so
the ashes seriously go online and the garden
jewelry store and get these.
Yeah.
Okay, when your own minority Community has
given up on being listened to.
How do you start building enough power for the community to come back together?
once question
I am when I heard that question first thing that
came into my head was this talk about
the abortion bands that are happening.
In the US and how black women specifically
have been saying like we have been already saying
This and like this abortionment actually doesn't change anything for black
women and how there's a lot of white women who are like very upset
and it's like we're tired of having to
say it all the time. We're having it tired of being out
there on the front line all the time and I just really
appreciate the fact that like some black women just like this is not my
fight and I think that's okay and so
I would say like
If you do have you know the ability or that position
of privilege.
support the marginalized community in that in that
rest and and take up some
arms like you go out like help us out,
you know, so I would say I would
love to see more like support from other
communities and then I don't think that I
mean like I said
therapy has really helped me having a community of organizers who
you know, I can talk about all the stuff that's happening has
really helped, but I would really
You know push folks to do that like that self-care. I
know that's like a phrase that everybody saying but like really caring
for yourself is like is really important in this
work. That was one of the other questions in here. How do you look after yourself while
roller skating clearly and buying fabulous
earrings buying fabulous earrings? Yeah. Let's see.
What else do I do? I mean, I really enjoy good food. So,
you know, I ate entirely too many
shrimp yesterday. It's great.
I was judging myself a little bit. But now you know, I'm just I'm trying
to just let it go those cocktails for a real hit note to
self. Yeah.
Every design thinkers needs shrimp. Yeah, I just kept
going back. So I
enjoy good food and I really enjoy laughing so, you
know, seeing like really good movies or just having a
lot of conversation like family functions, like people are always
talking over each other and yelling and all this and I love
that. So like being in those types of spaces are like ways
that I find care for myself amazing. We
are. Oh we have time for one more question. Let me
find one. Let me pick one.
Oh, they're typing.
How do you set safe and clear boundaries for yourself
in your advocacy when dealing with unsafe people
in situations?
We're going out on a big one. Yeah, that's a really
huge one.
How do you make sure you stay safe and the people you care about stay safe?
I mean
one of the things that you do when you're about to go out to the protests as
you have check-ins and there's like little acronyms you can
do for certain things, but some of
them are like, you know, especially if I'm with a whole
bunch of black organizers, like are you feeling like going to the
protests and being in the front line or you just kind of looking to step back and
like hand out, you know hand warmers or whatever
so I think
That's a way to make sure that we stay safe in
that is like really thinking about what your mental capacity is in
that moment. Are you okay being arrested today?
Like really checking in with one. Another is is
going to be the way that we keep each other safe one way
that I feel like
One thing that I have really thought about in this process of like
healing and Community transformation.
Is that gray area when I
talk about that I talk about like thinking about how folks
who have even harmed Community can
be Vindicated and it's really hard
to think about that. Like you're like Donald Trump can be like, you
know somebody that we'd want to be in community with and
like, you know who really are abolitionist and we
really are folks that are saying like punitive, you know punishment is
not what we want. We have to begin to think in that
way and that's why I say like, there's so much freedom in the gray area and I
feel like I'm thinking about safety but
also like my mental capacity like it's not my job
to hold on to that burden of making sure
someone knows that they're wrong because I think that they already know
they're wrong.
most of the time
and so it's really just our job to kind of
help rehabilitate and I think shifting out
of the role of like calling out people and canceling people and moving
to this role of like Rehabilitation. I think is
another way to sort of keep my mind at ease and safe. So
this is a couple of things. Yeah.
I think that makes a lot of sense and I think that the sort
of mental health piece of it goes hand in hand with the physical safety, right?
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. If you're not in it that day, you're not
going to stay as safe as you would be if you were aware. Absolutely.
We're yeah, thank you so
much. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing all of your
research with us. You're thinking your experiences and
some of that Joy those girls were amazing. Yeah, so
great.
Join me in a round of applause for today.
Terresa Moses
Terresa (she/her) is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. She uses creativity as a tool for community activism through projects like her recent solo exhibition, Umbra. Terresa is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt — a social justice-based design studio — and an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota. As a community engaged scholar, she created Project Naptural, which creates spaces to educate, connect and empower Black women about their natural hair and self-identity, and Racism Untaught, a curriculum model that reveals ‘racialized' design and helps students, educators and organizations create anti-racist concepts through the design research process. She is currently a PhD candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She also serves as a core team member of African American Graphic Designers (AAGD) and as a collaborator with the Black Liberation Lab.