MODA | Envisioning an Afro-Future for Atlanta

‌How might we envision an Afro-future for Atlanta?

Join Building Utopia and MODA for an evening of idea-building and hands-on creative interaction as we engage with methods of speculative design.

Using prompts from The Building Utopia Toolkit, we’ll imagine and prototype Atlanta’s future via creative media like music, graffiti, LEGO, and more. Sip a cocktail, meet new people, and enjoy MODA’s current exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, as you engage.

You’ll also be able to purchase or order your own Building Utopia Toolkit.

This event has a suggested donation of $10. Registration is free, but consider adding a $10 donation to support this program.

About Speculative Design

Speculative Design provides the opportunity for a creative reimagining of worlds, allowing us to see what is possible for more equitable and radical futures. While Afro-diasporic communities have engaged in futuring and ingenuity throughout history, they have also rarely been seen in the process of design or visions of the future.

About Building Utopia

The Building Utopia Deck is an Afrofuturist Speculative Design toolkit created by organizers, strategists, and educators to imagine the future of our communities and consider the legacy we are leaving for them. Using a series of card decks and visioning exercises, the toolkit introduces audiences to ways that design might lead us to more liberated futures.

Building Utopia’s mission is to make designing for Black liberation and marginalized communities appealing and accessible. By sharing ways to speculate and cultivate new futures, we aim to reclaim design for the communities that should be at the forefront of change. The Building Utopia toolkit introduces audiences to exercises and activities for us to dream up more liberated futures. Our hope is that Building Utopia will be a resource for community and organizational planning and thinking about the futures of education, community development, and environmental sustainability, among many others!

The Building Utopia Toolkit was created by:

• Christina Harrington, a designer, researcher, and facilitator
• Jennifer Roberts, an equity strategist and social designer
• Kristen Bray, a researcher and creator
• N’deye Diakhate, an institute design collaboratorv