This 90-minute participatory session engages participants in a process of visionary social storytelling around the collective struggle required to win our utopia—utilizing the artist's tabletop game, Solarpunk Futures. The game employs backcasting in a “Festival of Remembrance," whereby Assemblies for the Future (groups of up to 8 players) play for 40 minutes from the perspective of a future utopia in which they collectively “remember” how their Ancestors utilized Tools and Values to overcome a real-world Challenge. Assemblies will report back on the form of their utopian scenarios, insights gained along the way, and how their experiences might inform their present-day actions. Through the game, players engage in the serious yet joyful play of dialogue on the nature of the Challenges we face (e.g. Hunger, Water Crisis, Police Violence), the role of individual Ancestors, the constraints and opportunities presented by different Tools, the forces of opposition the Ancestors had to face, the ways different Ancestor roles, Values, and Tools emergently interweave, and more. Players embody positions of historical consequence while—via Tool cards featuring quotes from figures such as Rosa Luxembourg, Fred Hampton, Murray Bookchin, and Ursula K. LeGuin among many others—engaging with contemporary and ancient revolutionary concepts from our global legacy of freedom.
