Underground Futures
What happens when Black women in educational leadership gather to imagine futures...not as a luxury, but as necessity? When we don't have to explain our lived experience before we can dream?
Refuge. Community. Innovation.
This lab is for educators, administrators, emerging & established leaders who know that futures thinking isn't abstract theory. You don't learn this in a course (though Black women earn 64% of bachelor's degrees, 71% of master's degrees, and 66% of doctoral degrees awarded to Black students, making us among the most credentialed educational leaders). It's something far beyond traditional resilience...in light of/in spite of rigor and survival intelligence we've been practicing all along. Whether you're in a formal leadership role or building influence from wherever you stand, sit or saunter, you're welcome here.
In this session, you'll:
Build community and cross-pollinate with women who get it...no code-switching translation required
Explore futures methodologies to turnkey in your own context
Develop foresight skills and capacity for navigating uncertainty
Experience "for us, by us" energy in a refuge designed for innovation
Our driving force won't be artificial intelligence. We're tuning into Ancestral Intelligence (AI), tapping into intuition, real talk, and lived experiences that span time zones and district lines as our collective intelligence. Expect auntie ancestor energy, whispers of wisdom from within, and the kind of knowing that doesn't need credentials to be valid.
Inspired by Black and indigenous women in education whose frameworks I've learned from throughout Acosta Institute's healing-centered programming generously funded by W.K. Kellogg Foundation...Dr. Kia DH's Bridge to Thriving, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz's Archaeology of Self, Solana Booth's Indigenous wisdoms, dru McDaniel's Alchemy of Now, and Arlène Elizabeth Casimir's wisdom re: trauma-informed education...I'm anchoring UNESCO frameworks and established futures research methods in practices that honor how we actually lead and live.
This will not be an extractive professional development session. This is community. This is experimentation. This is the refuge where you can show up exactly as you are while expanding what's possible.
No prerequisites. No homework (unless you like that sort of thing 🤓 🙋🏾♀️ ) No long-term commitment. Just us, exploring what futures we can build when we're not explaining ourselves.
This lab runs alongside peer facilitation of a Futures Literacy Lab in Berlin w/ Futures Literacy pioneer Riel Miller, who encourages me to develop new methods and put into practice what I learned at Hanze with UNESCO Chairs Ramila Khafaji Zadeh & Loes Damhof. I'm here to seed culturally relevant futures practice within my own community... 🌱
Come join me (or share widely) as I wiggle into my Willy Wonka*Mrs. Frizzle*Einstein Afroasian lady vibes in 2026.
My word for 2026 is AUDACITY. 🚀
What's yours?