Event Dates: September 8 – 9, 2023
Role: Executive Director
Organization: Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab (JDL)
I led a team that curated and executed the JDL’s inaugural virtual gathering for artists, activists, scholars, and technologists. The Hub provided a platform for 100 participants from 13 countries to brainstorm innovative ideas for creating better and improved worlds through strategies, stories and co-created speculative interventions.
Grace Lee Boggs taught us that “movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass.” The Just Futures Hub is a gathering place for technology justice practitioners and other worldbuilders to make critical and creative connections to imagine and craft just futures. The Hub aims to foster transnational and intergenerational ties. Gathering from many different walks of life, participants learn from one another, sharing strategies and stories—co-creating speculative interventions, facilitating collective healing, and exchanging knowledge that challenges Western standards of design and innovation.
This fall ’23 gathering was an inaugural convening of the Just Futures Hub, cultivating transnational solidarities and reimagining what it means to build a network grounded in genuine connection and sustained growth. We invited session facilitators whose research and advocacy helped orient the Just Futures Hub through interactive workshops and inspiring presentations. Next, we hosted a Speed Connecting session— multiple rounds of one-on-one conversations with other dreamers. Finally, we engaged in thought-provoking strategizing sessions where we turned theoretical concepts into tangible action. Our major focus areas were Building Community, Abolition + Justice, Arts + Emergent Technology, and Environmental Justice.
Payton Croskey 