Community Futures Lab Blog

Community gallery, resource and zine library, workshop space, recording booth, and time capsule recording oral histories/futures in North Philly | Project of @afrofuturistaffair / @blackquantumfuturism | More info: facebook.com/communityfutureslab www.blackquantumfuturism.com www.afrofuturistaffair.com

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The Philly Eviction Prevention Project is getting lots of coverage this week in connection to a report released that shows that eviction prevention with legal aid attorneys can save the city millions! Last year community members, friends and neighbors came to @communityfutureslab to help raise awareness of the eviction crisis by creating signs and artwork and showing up to city council hearings, which lead to the creation of the PEPP program. Check out articles on the report and the work of PEPP over the past year at @phillytrib @phillyweekly @kywradio @nextcityorg @planphilly (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/communityfutureslab/p/BqNMzdAjjqw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1170h7rbul3u0

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2016 @abladeofgrassnyc Fellows @blackquantumfuturism, comprised of Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips, created a community art and research project to explore the impact of redevelopment and displacement in the Sharswood/Blumberg neighborhood of North Philadelphia. “Community Futurisms: Time & Memory in North Philly” uses Afrofuturist theory to collectively envision the future and preserve the community’s cultural history. Watch the new FIELDWORKS film in its entirety on @abladeofgrassnyc website. ⠀ The #FIELDWORKS series is produced by @rava_films. #sociallyengagedart #abogfellows #blackquantumfuturism #afrofuturism #communityfutureslab #philly #northphilly #sharswood https://www.instagram.com/communityfutureslab/p/BpYDCG4BjZ6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1fwj04lfxv4bm

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In NYT this week talking about another feature of the housing crisis - Sec 8 voucher discrimination. Philly has some of the highest rates of Landlords refusing to take vouchers despite local discrimination protections: “ It is a crisis,” said Rasheedah Phillips, managing attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia’s housing unit, which defends tenants in court. “It used to be that Section 8 was basically a guarantee of shelter for families, for the elderly, for disabled people, but now it’s becoming much harder for tenants to get landlords to take the vouchers. And it’s only getting worse as the market heats up.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/us/politics/section-8-housing-vouchers-landlords.html https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo4MNO8hzJl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1a2a0yizjqo7b

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#communityfutureslab creator and @clsphila attorney Rasheedah Phillips co-wrote this op-ed with TURN for @planphilly on the growing issue of mass displacement in Philly, and some of the cultural, racial, and health implications of this form of housing crisis. #evictions #gentrificafion #housing #housingfutures https://www.instagram.com/p/BnpThQEhuxc/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1p2x1iiv32pn2

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@communityfutureslab co-creator Rasheedah Phillips featured in @phillydotcom story on a very troubling study - In Philly, two-thirds of the landlords won’t take affordable housing vouchers — even when the renter can afford the place. This is racial justice, disability justice, and gender justice issue - discrimination against a persons status as a Sec 8 voucher holder may be hiding even more insidious discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and disability. | #housing #section8 #vouchers #discrimination

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Ms. Elizabeth, frequent visitor and participant at @communityfutureslab sharing her temporal/time interests, rituals, and traditions during our move out day in April 2017 💕 | #blackwomanisttemporalities #grandmotherparadox #communityfutures #time #creativeresearch #time #philly #study #blackwomen #oralhistory #oralfutures #neighbors #community #afrofuturism #northphilly (at Community Futures Lab)

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Celebrating the end of summer at Annual @brew.sharswoodcca Unity Day at @therec__ on August 4 ☀️🌺☀️ | #communityfutures #communityfuturisms #northphilly #unityday #brewerytown #sharswood (at Athletic Recreation Center)

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The CFL #OralFutures Booth and #Zine Library is out today at the @youthhealersphilly HEAL THE FUTURE Conference! Youth are recording their hopes and visions for the futures of their communities and strategizing around what resources and tools they need to build those futures. #housingfutures #healthefuture2018 #youthhealersphilly #communityfutureslab (at The Cedar Works)

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We had such an inspiring , thought/provoking, and beautiful panel and community discussion yesterday at #BlackSpaceAgency x #AllThatPhillyJazz #BlueNoteSalon on art, jazz, activism and the current day reflections and reverberations with such incidents as #Starbucks racism and modern day gentrification/redlining. Thank you so much to moderator @fayemaria and panelists @iamtieshkasmith @graupy Mike O Bryan and Stormy Kelsey. So many thanks to community members who came out to add to the conversations and #BlackSpaceAgency Artist Betty Leacraft for talking to visitors about her piece “Kensington Memories.” Look out for more Blue Note Salons in the #AfroFuture! #jazz #art #civilrights #antiblackness #racism (at Icebox Project Space)

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We had nearly 100 youth at at the #BlackSpaceAgency Youth Housing Visioning Session engaged and giving their ideas and visions for the future of housing for low income, LGBTQ, Black and POC, and disabled youth, and other communities that are often left out of the discussion! We can’t move forward in creating current and future equity in our communities without the voices and visions of young people. Congratulations and huge thank you to the @youthhealersphilly for their flawless work in facilitating such an intricate conversation and activities with so many young people! There will be additional Visioning sessions in the near AfroFuture. #housingfutures #youth #youthhomelessness #affordablehousing #philly #phillyyouth #youthactivist #afrofuturism

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As we prepare for tomorrow’s #blackspaceagency Youth Housing Visioning Session with @youthhealersphilly, we reflect on the all but forgotten history/memory of DIG THIS NOW, a newspaper created by #NorthPhilly youth gangs in 1968 with help from a Temple student. After a particularly bad wave of violence between rival youth gangs and shortly after the Columbia Ave riots, the gangs called a truce and the newspaper was started to document life in their community and gang life. One of the gangs involved would open a branch of Dig This called Hip City that included articles on how to stop the violence. Dig This Now is a potent example of how powerful Black youth can be and always have been as forces of change and how they have addressed issues we continue to deal with, such as gentrification and displacement and how they were able to connect it to the violence of survival in disinvested communities. | archival images via Temple Digital Archives and Philadelphia Inquirer #digthisnow #communityfuturisms #archives #youth #youthgang #blackspacetimematters #youthactivism #disinvestment #philly #phillyhistory (at North Phlly)

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The @youthhealersphilly x #blackspaceagency Youth Housing Visioning Session is full tomorrow! However we hope to have more sessions in the future and invite you to contribute to the conversation with by answering some of the prompts developed by @youthhealersphilly - email your responses to [email protected] | #youth #youthhousing #philly #northphilly #housing #youthleaders #youthactivism #development #gentrification #displacement #homelessness #youthhomelessness

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Thank you to everyone who came out today to the two free #housingfutures tenants rights workshops held with @brew.sharswoodcca @communityfutureslab @clsphila - in addition to learning about tenant rights and protections, attendees talked about their visions for the future of their communities and things they wish others knew about their communities. We were also excited to display a banner of tenant rights keywords created by Philly based artist Betty Leacraft. More workshops and events coming up this weekend for #BlackSpaceAgency | #tenantrights #phillytenants #housingfutures #eviction #evicted #evictedphilly #socialjustice #advocacy #communityfuturisms #blackspacetimematters #blackquantumfuturism

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2 Free Tenants Rights workshops today at @brew.sharswoodcca w/ @clsphila attorneys Mike Carroll and @RPhillipsEsq and @communityfutureslab table with #HousingFutures workbooks and postcards and tenant rights banner created by Philadelphia-based artist Betty Leacraft! Next workshop starts at 630pm at 30th and Master #communityfuturisms #northphilly #phillytenants (at Brewerytown, Philadelphia)

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2 Free Tenants Rights workshops today at @brew.sharswoodcca w/ @clsphila attorneys Mike Carroll and @RPhillipsEsq and included #CommunityFuturesLab #HousingFutures workbooks + postcards and display of a tenant rights banner created by Philadelphia-based artist Betty Leacraft! Next workshop starts at 630pm today at 30th and Master St. | #tenantsrights #philly #northphilly #eviction #tenants #justcauseeviction #phillytenants

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Free Tenants' Rights Workshop @brew.sharswoodcca @clsphila Learn about eviction protections, getting security deposits back, dealing with habitability and repair problems, illegal lockouts, and how to prepare for a Landlord-Tenant hearing. facebook.com/events/2011952… #northphilly #housingrights #eviction #philly #sharswood

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A workshop with Youth HEALers Stand Up! @youthhealersphilly to envision the future(s) of housing and new models of support, resources, emotional and physical health and safety for low income/institutionalized/disconnected people under 25 in Philly. These visioning sessions will be youth-led and facilitated, with support from youth justice and housing advocates. Visioning sessions will include mapping, storytelling, resource-sharing and other activities that will allow youth and participants to create a collaborative, multi-prong action plan for shaping the future of housing justice in Philadelphia. @iceboxprojectspace 1400 N. American St, Phila PA 19122 | Accessible Space Food + Public Transportation support + $25 stipend for youth participants RSVP: blackquantumfuturism@gmail 215-469-1606 (Text or voicemail) About Youth HEALers Stand Up!: Youth HEALers Stand Up! is a collective of young people ages 13-24 who have struggled against homelessness, and who are committed to sparking and maintaining a youth-led movement to fight youth homelessness, housing insecurity, and poverty in Philadelphia and beyond. The HEALers are committed to altering power dynamics in youth serving systems so that more young people have access to decision-making processes that affect their lives, and so that adult professionals learn to see youth as potential resources for creating solutions, rather than as problems themselves. At the same time, The HEALers are committed to creating a space where participants and community members experience healing through consciousness raising, peer support, and solidarity building around youth homelessness and related experiences of foster care, incarceration and detention, and/or intergenerational poverty. The HEALers are housed at People’s Emergency Center, a comprehensive community development and housing non-profit serving the West Philadelphia community since 1972. ----------------------------- Workshop is part Community Futurisms: Time & Memory in North Philly 002 - #blackspaceagency | #afrofuturism #youth #homelessness #youthactivism #wakanda #philly #phillyyouth #blackfutures #communityfuturisms #communityfutureslab (at Icebox Project Space)