Transcript: Episode 7

The Light Ahead Podcast

Episode 7: An Extraordinary Ordinary Day in the Life of Rakia McDowell

Makia Martin (00:04):

Welcome to The Light Ahead, a fiction podcast that investigates the question, "What would 2030 look like if the US had an economy that truly worked and cared for everyone?"

Makia Martin (00:19):

(singing)

Makia Martin (00:22):

The US has an imagination gap when it comes to the economy. We generally think that we have to choose one -ism or another, like capitalism or socialism. But the reality is, our options are as diverse as those who can dream them, because we continually create the economy every single day with our actions and choices. This podcast is designed to help us all practice expanding our economic imaginations, to take us out of the what is and help us dream what could be. A production of Avalon: Story and Beloved Economies, each episode was co-created by a Hollywood screenwriter and a changemaker at the cutting edge of transforming our economy. For this project, we didn't ask them to tackle the question of how, but rather to dream using the magic of storytelling to help us all imagine possible futures.

Makia Martin (01:18):

(singing)

Makia Martin (01:25):

I'm Makia, your guide as we venture into future timelines filled with possibility. In this episode, we'll join Rakia McDowell, as she experiences a normal day in her neighborhood. Rakia's life may be mundane for her, but we'll quickly see how intentional changes that she has made in her life and work set her apparent ordinary day apart from what we may be used to. From a schedule that allows her to be a whole person, to her rich relationships with all the local businesses, Rakia's life is a masterclass in living a fulfilling life built around supporting herself and her entire community. And spoiler alert, you don't have to wait for some far-off powers that be to change the economy. You can start with yourself and inspire people to join in with you in building the economies we long for right now.

Makia Martin (02:22):

Before we listen to the story, we are first going to hear from the two women behind it. This episode was written by The Light Ahead's co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer, Naomi McDougall Jones. Aisha Shillingford is the inspiration and collaborator behind this episode, and an artist, designer, strategist, and the Artistic Director for Intelligent Mischief, a creative studio unleashing Black imagination to shape the future. Aisha, could you tell us about your work with Intelligent Mischief and how going through the process of imagining 2030 brought insight to your own life and work?

Aisha Shillingford (03:04):

I feel like the work that I do is about creating connections to a beautiful future, particularly for Black people. So a lot of what I do is either create art or stories that help Black folks to situate themselves in a beautiful future, so I facilitate world-building design processes. In terms of the process of imagining 2030, I almost kind of felt it like a check on how integrated my own approach is to living the life that I imagine. Sometimes I think I don't spend too much time imagining my own future, so I feel like the process helped me to sort of think more deeply about, "Okay, what are things from this story that I want to make sure are in my life now?"

Makia Martin (04:01):

Naomi, what from your conversations with Aisha informed your creation of this episode the most?

Naomi McDougall Jones (04:08):

The thing that stuck with me most strongly from our interview was just the act of saying, "No. This is how I want to live my life. This is the amount of contact I'm willing to have with other people. This is the time that I need for myself, for my own art practice." It's such a simple act and yet so profound and so I shifted things in my actual life as a result of that conversation. And I've since shared those changes with other people and they've also made changes and just that simple idea of, "I can choose to live my life in the way that I want it today, and the details of it." And so that became, obviously, the centerpiece of the episode, wanting to think about how could one person then ripple out into two and three and four people to build this community that's all choosing to live in this different way.

Makia Martin (05:01):

This seems like a good time to make sure your preconceptions are powered down and your mind is unlocked in the expansive position. This is an extraordinary, ordinary day in the life of Rakia McDowell.

Speaker 4 (05:27):

Before Rakia McDowell opened her eyes that morning, she felt the warmth of the sun. She heard birds heralding in the dawn of the morning. She felt the hot safety of her wife, Kira's back against her stomach. Felt the soft, substantial sheets caressing her skin. Looking at the clock, Rakia saw that it was 5:45 AM. Of course, it was. She had risen at this time for so many years, she had long since removed the need for an alarm clock.

Rakia (06:05):

Good morning.

Speaker 4 (06:06):

In her kitchen, Rakia made her morning cup of coffee, homemade espresso with enough oatmeal to make it creamy, just the way she loved it. On her porch, Rakia cradled her warm cup, relishing the heat seeping out into her hands, silently greeting the trees all around her, listening carefully to the morning messages of the birds. And when she had reached the bottom of her cup, as she did every morning, she began her morning meditation, quieting her mind, bringing her awareness to her breath, flowing in through her nostrils down the back of her throat, feeling her lungs and abdomen before floating back out again, reawakening the life force and deeper wisdom in every cell of her body. Grounded and awake, Rakia headed downstairs to her art studio. Every day since the late summer of 2020, Rakia had built her life around the schedule of her own devising. From 6:00 AM to noon was her time, time for her daily art practice, time for creation, for beauty, for the special kind of healing love that gets whipped up in the space between an artist, her materials, and the things that grow out of them both.

Speaker 4 (07:39):

An hour for lunch at noon leaves open the space from 1:00 to 5:00 PM for meetings, though never more than 12 hours of meetings in a week. That was an important piece in Rakia's schedule scaffold framework. Most of these meetings took place on their community-owned video conferencing platform, often with other members of her artist cooperative. But twice a week only, Rakia ventured down her house on the hill and into her neighborhood. Other community members spent more time there, of course, but Rakia had found that twice a week was really the correct amount of group human interaction for an introvert such as herself. And from 5:00 PM on each day was a time for joy, for play, for enrichment, for community. And it goes without saying, of course, for the sunset hour.

Rakia (08:40):

Oh, dang.

Speaker 4 (08:43):

Rakia had realized that she was out of paper.

Rakia (08:46):

Eleven years ago, if I would've run out paper, I would've opened my computer, clicked on approximately three buttons, and new paper would've arrived at my doorstep from far across the world at 3:00 PM that very same day.

Speaker 4 (08:59):

That's right, honey.

Rakia (09:01):

For less money than it costs at my local store.

Speaker 4 (09:03):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Rakia (09:06):

But that's not how I'm choosing to live anymore.

Speaker 4 (09:08):

That's right, baby. At a certain point, some people decided that there were things important than convenience. They saw that economy is simply a number of entities moving resources between themselves and those who those resources go to support. They saw that whether it's going to paying living wages and thrivable working conditions or going to line some man's pocket, who's going to be just fine either way. That might actually be the most important thing of all.

Rakia (09:43):

And that what we were trading for convenience was continually sending wealth out of our communities and into the pockets of billionaires who were never going to send it back to us. So at a certain point, a certain number of us decided that we wanted to simply keep sharing those resources between ourselves.

Speaker 4 (10:01):

Which, not incidentally, is how this community that Rakia lives in began.

Rakia (10:08):

But we'll tell you more about that in a little while.

Speaker 4 (10:12):

Today was her once a week into the community day.

Rakia (10:17):

And as I ride my bike down the hill, my skin tingles with pleasure of the wind tickling my cheeks, the sun soft and warm on my head, like my grandmother's hand.

Speaker 4 (10:31):

And she smiled as she rode past the murals, covering each and everything building painted by her friends, other artists of the community, remade each month, each one bringing the history of this neighborhood, its residents, their ancestors into living color and presence, or expanding imaginations, helping residents dream into a more beautiful future as if with each mural, the community grasped the past and future, pulling them closer to the present lives of this community.

Rakia (11:08):

Good morning, Shinori.

Shinori (11:14):

Good morning, chipmunk.

Rakia (11:17):

I brought you some peaches from the garden.

Shinori (11:20):

Oh, hand me one. Oh, I used to worry that these peaches would never taste like this again.

Rakia (11:27):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Shinori (11:30):

Now, they never tasted the same from the store.

Rakia (11:32):

No, they didn't.

Shinori (11:33):

Now, there's a stack of paper for you on the counter.

Rakia (11:36):

Oh, thank you.

Shinori (11:38):

Now, make sure you take the rest to The Treasure Chest.

Rakia (11:41):

I will.

Shinori (11:42):

You should have seen what a good time we had all making it. The class felt so proud. This was their first time. One little girl kept walking up and handing me each sheet of paper she finished, as though she done spun gold.

Rakia (12:03):

You need anything else today?

Shinori (12:05):

Me? Oh, no, honey. Oh, well, the children were noticing the other day that the sign outside the school, it's looking a little weathered. I wondered whether or not you might be-

Rakia (12:18):

Of course.

Shinori (12:20):

Good woman. Who you bringing food to today?

Rakia (12:24):

Mr. Gleason.

Shinori (12:27):

Oh, well. Good luck with that. He's a crotchety old bastard.

Rakia (12:34):

Still a community member, though.

Shinori (12:36):

Still a community member. Although I do wonder whether our heads were quite on straight the day we voted him in.

Rakia (12:45):

He was an elder in need.

Shinori (12:47):

Yes, he was.

Rakia (12:50):

And good Lord, does he make some beautiful cabinets.

Shinori (12:54):

Well, nobody here is going to argue with that.

Rakia (12:57):

See you soon, [bitty inaudible 00:12:59].

Shinori (12:59):

Don't forget about the paper.

Makia Martin (13:09):

Aisha, can you tell us more about the ecosystem of cooperatives in this episode and what are some examples of this type of network being developed currently?

Aisha Shillingford (13:19):

Oh my gosh. That's so interesting, because I was thinking, "Oh, if there was one thing that exists in the episode that I most yearn for that's kind of missing from my real life, I would say it's the way the community interacts."

Aisha Shillingford (13:33):

Yeah. The idea was that what if every interaction or every place, what if all of those spaces were actually owned by the people who needed them? And I was so curious about what it would be like to actually imagine the economy itself in a local way. So what if the bodega was cooperatively owned? Interestingly enough, a lot of bodegas in New York City are cooperatively owned, because the Yemeni community has a co-op where basically they all kind of invest in each other, owning or operating a bodega. So I remember as I say it, I'm like, "Okay, this does exist." Artisan craftsmen is a co-op. I could buy my groceries at a co-op or at a CSA. Yeah. Just really dreaming about maybe knitting or weaving that ecosystem more tightly and expanding it more like banking in a credit union, things like that, which are all possible, but maybe not necessarily accessible. So it's there, but weaving it together. Maybe there needs to be a weaving co-op or something.

Makia Martin (14:40):

And Naomi, why did you choose the locations and scenes you chose to highlight?

Naomi McDougall Jones (14:46):

In terms of location, I had brought this question to Aisha of whether we ought to set this community in an urban or rural setting. As we think about idyllic communities, there's often a feeling, "Well, it must be some rural setting that makes the sort of idealism of the community easier in some way." And I, in fact, moved to Idaho after 13 years in New York City during the pandemic, specifically from a feeling of wanting a simpler life in search of the thing that Aisha had found for herself and mandated and constructed for herself in the city. So I was really inspired by that and it felt important to say to the listener, "You can build this wherever you are. I mean, I'm delighted to be in Idaho, but you don't have to be in Id... You could be wherever and still find this ease and this spaciousness in your life." So in that conversation, we decided to set it where Aisha does actually live.

Speaker 4 (15:37):

And so Rakia did bring some homemade meals to Mr. Gleason.

Mr. Gleason (15:50):

Who's that bothering me?

Speaker 4 (15:52):

Who was, truth be told, a crotchety old bastard.

Mr. Gleason (15:57):

I told you before young lady, I do not like these pears.

Speaker 4 (16:03):

But did make the most beautiful cabinets you've ever seen. And even, on occasional straight evenings in the dog days of summer or the quiet chill of winter's night, could be heard singing in a baritone so rich and mellifluous that it made all hearts glad and warm who heard. Yes, even mine.

Mr. Gleason (16:48):

(singing)

Steve (16:55):

Welcome to The Treasure Chest. Oh, hi, Rakia. What's up? That a new batch of paper in?

Rakia (17:01):

Yes. From the school. Busy day?

Steve (17:06):

Oh, not so bad. We had a little to do in here earlier.

Rakia (17:08):

Oh.

Steve (17:09):

Ah, but a young man from outside the community who took it into his mind to come and make off with as much as he could carry: a winter jacket and gloves, a hotspot, 17 cans of various kinds of beans and soups that he tried to hide in a truly astonishing variety of places.

Rakia (17:25):

Uh-huh (affirmative).

Steve (17:30):

Oh, it was no great thing. Felicia noticed and everyone present, after they'd had some time to feel through their hotter and angrier emotions, had a productive discussion of the matter. Kevin? That's his name. It seems that Kevin has had a rough go of things and everyone eventually agreed that in this moment, Kevin probably needed our excess more than we did and that he should be allowed to keep most of what he was looking to steal. Mrs. Clark simply requested that she be allowed to feed him a spot of lunch and provide some stimulating discourse on the subject of wealth re-distribution, communities of care, and a sharing economy, which Kevin readily agreed to. Although I imagine he might be somewhat regretting it right about now, but I am sure the lentil soup is very good. Oh, I'm looking forward to the art show next week.

Rakia (18:24):

Yes. I've got my work cut out for me to finish everything in time. I'll see you around, Steve.

Steve (18:29):

I'll see you around.

Speaker 4 (18:36):

As Rakia rode towards the neighborhood green-

Rakia (18:38):

One of the many spaces in the neighborhood designed for being together without needing to purchase anything, not even a coffee.

Speaker 4 (18:46):

Yes. She rolled around in her mind several possibilities for how she might choose to spend today's sunset hour. Often she liked to attend an outdoor dance class, joyfully moving to the beauty in the sky or she and Kira might enjoy picnic with their friends.

Rakia (19:06):

Or alone.

Speaker 4 (19:09):

Or sometimes alone. But today, she could feel that her body needed some strong, sacred vibrations. So she turned her bike in the direction of the Brazilian drumming circle. As the sun set over the neighborhood formerly known as Bed-Stuy, those since re-named by this community with a title more befitting the true past and future of this area of land, Rakia picked up a drum and played. She played with her heart, with her hands, with every cell that began vibrating a little differently in response to the music. Her community, the ever-changing concert of colors in the night sky.

Speaker 4 (20:05):

And many hours later, after dinner with Kira made with ingredients as many as possible from within a five-mile radius of their house, after community story hour, after brushing her teeth and doing a little light cleaning as she did every night because it made her feel so good to wake up to a tidy house, Rakia found herself again, lying in their bed.

Rakia (20:33):

Thinking as I often do about how beautiful my life has become, how filled with the simplest, but most important pleasures, thinking back to a conversation I had just 10 years ago-

Speaker 4 (20:48):

With me.

Rakia (20:50):

Yes, with you. "Leap," you said.

Speaker 4 (20:56):

You are choosing many details of a life that brings you mostly misery right now. What if you chose details of a life that could bring you bliss?

Rakia (21:05):

What if you insisted on spaciousness in your days?

Speaker 4 (21:08):

Structured your whole life around making that possible?

Rakia (21:11):

What if you made yourself remember what things actually make you happy, wrote them down-

Speaker 4 (21:17):

And tuned out all that other, should have, has to be, that's the way it is noise?

Rakia (21:24):

What if you realize that the future life you want is really possible?

Speaker 4 (21:29):

And what if you were brave enough to leap and live that future now?

Rakia (21:34):

And what if in that simple act of radically shifting your own life, your own details of your own days-

Speaker 4 (21:42):

You awoke the imaginations of everyone around you about what life could possibly be, what living could actually feel like?

Rakia (21:51):

And what if they chose to leap and live their futures now?

Speaker 4 (21:55):

And what if at some point a critical mass of those people came together and informed a community of care around a shared set of values, a different kind of economy, a different way of life?

Rakia (22:09):

Not that that would be easy. You warned me.

Speaker 4 (22:13):

It would require every participant learning to meet every other participant where they stand and growing together, which is not easy coming from where we came from.

Rakia (22:25):

That's right. But I asked you more than a little skeptical at the time, "You think that is actually possible at all? I'm only one person with one set of decisions that I can make. And you think that is enough to start to bring the future right here?"

Speaker 4 (22:40):

I do.

Rakia (22:42):

You said,

Speaker 4 (22:43):

I truthfully do.

Makia Martin (22:44):

To end this episode, let's hear from Aisha one last time. As an artist and organizer, what do you believe the role of imagination is in shaping our future?

Aisha Shillingford (23:17):

I remember one of the groups that I was part of, they used to say our current system or capitalism, basically it says there are no alternatives. And we believe there are many alternatives. So I believe that's really what imagination does for us. And I think particularly in art and creativity, it's about sort of suspending current reality. I really think one of the biggest things that imagination does is help us believe that the current system is not inevitable. It helps us to ask what if and why not?

Makia Martin (23:55):

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed your trip into the future and can now see the light ahead a little more clearly. The Light Ahead is a production of Avalon: Story and Beloved Economies. Based on six years of research in collaboration with over 100 groups across the US, the Beloved Economies campaign is sharing stories, practices, tools, and tips to expand imaginations of what is possible for our economy. Avalon: Story is a center of practice based in Ketchum, Idaho, to help birth the future of story by investigating two questions: what does story need to be to build us a bridge to a more beautiful future? And what does the business of story need to be to serve as a vehicle for the same? The Light Ahead is a Beloved Economies and Avalon: Story production made in partnership with Frequency Media. I'm your host, Makia Martin.

Makia Martin (24:56):

It is executive produced by Naomi McDougall Jones of Avalon: Story, Joanna Cea and Jess Rimington of Beloved Economies, Lila Yomtoob and Michelle Cory of Frequency Media. It is produced by Heidi Roodvoets and Jordan Rizzieri, and co-produced by Lauren Wrestler and Sonia Sarkar of Beloved Economies.

Makia Martin (25:18):

The fictional portion of this episode was produced by Avalon: Story and Frequency Media, written by Naomi McDougall Jones based conversations with and the ideas of Aisha Shillingford of Intelligent Mischief. Directed by Madeline Johnson and produced by Heidi Roodvoets. Featuring performances by Noor Hamdi, Arlene A. McGruder, Okema T. Moore, and Quincy O'Neal.

Makia Martin (25:46):

Production coordinated by Marley Newman. Dialogue editing by Sydney Evans and sound design and mixing by Matthew Ernest Filler. The nonfiction portion of this episode was produced by Frequency Media, with dialogue editing by Sydney Evans and mixing by Matthew Ernest Filler. Our theme music was written and performed by Alicia Kay Hall, Jeffrey Archie, and BIG Patty. This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, and wherever podcasts are found.