Designing for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom
Summary
Amahra Spence will speak on the themes of the conference, reflect back key insights that emerged over the course of the three days, and leave us with critical questions we can carry forward as a community, and individuals after the conference is over.
Key Insights
-
•
Liberation surpasses equality and equity by addressing past injustices and enabling future progress simultaneously.
-
•
Amara's work is deeply informed by Black imagination, diaspora experiences, and cultural forms like hip hop and grime music.
-
•
Scientific fiction is a metaphor for organizing: imagining futures that don’t yet exist to practice new realities.
-
•
The concept of 'designing from imagination' challenges us to reject inherited limiting worldviews in civic design.
-
•
'Yard,' a community space inspired by Amara’s grandfather’s Caribbean home, serves as a prototype for radical hospitality and mutual aid.
-
•
Organizational governance benefits from models beyond flat or hierarchical, such as a solar system metaphor centered on mission interdependence.
-
•
Marginalized groups, including youth and elders, hold crucial embodied wisdom that must be recognized and invested in.
-
•
Culture and the arts are critical to liberation work by fostering new narratives and experimenting with systems change.
-
•
Mutual aid should be the default community practice, emphasizing generosity beyond transactional interactions.
-
•
Designing for generative endings is necessary to avoid clinging to outdated power structures and enable regenerative transformation.
Notable Quotes
"Liberation not only repairs past injustice, makes fair in the present, but removes barriers to progress and influences future outcomes."
"All organizing is science fiction; it’s about the imaginations we choose to design from."
"I often feel trapped inside someone else’s imagination and I must engage my own imagination to break free."
"The Caribbean front room of my granddad’s home was both affirming and radicalizing, a site of education and politics."
"Hip hop is a social critique born from necessity, and what if its musicality could inform the built environment’s future?"
"We don’t want a flat or hierarchical organization; we designed a solar system where the mission is the sun."
"We have to design for better endings, the most regenerative possible, instead of hoarding power or clinging to long-term roles."
"The small things are how we do the big things; there’s no shortcut to real change."
"Our future is made up of today’s decisions, relationships, practices, and commitments—what do we need to practice now?"
"To the brave people here: support other organizers, be them if you can’t support, and protect them with everything you can."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We should feel empowered to propose research initiatives that stakeholders aren’t explicitly asking for."
Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas PokharelOne Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
March 9, 2022
"Don’t talk about delight or loyalty; trust is the single best framing to connect with stakeholders."
Louis Rosenfeld Lashanda Hodge Senongo Akpem Chris HodowanecBecoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector
November 17, 2022
"We talked all about resilience, curated by myself yesterday."
Bria AlexanderDay 3 Welcome
September 25, 2024
"Am I getting what I wanna get out of this conference? What’s not coming and what would I still like to learn?"
Uday Gajendar Louis RosenfeldDay 2 Welcome
June 5, 2024
"When you design for the edges, you make things better, more fluid, more customizable for everyone."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
June 7, 2023
"If you really care about success, you define it first and hire against performance, not just experience."
Russ UngerOnboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
November 7, 2017
"We could impact the end-to-end customer service and customer experience through our most underutilized asset: our store employees."
Catherine DubutBridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design
March 18, 2021
"Bespoke UI can generate interfaces on the fly based on immediate need or intent."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)
January 29, 2025
"Ownership needs to be shared. The craft of making is similar to raising a child — it takes a village."
Dantley DavisLeadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis
September 17, 2020
