Intro

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CALLING ALL IMAGINATIONS:

Last summer in Baltimore, just a few months following the Baltimore Uprising, I started reaching out to possible collaborators for a project that has now become If I Ruled The World. At that time, it felt like the most important thing I could do was to be present with other people who cohabitate the city, to be as aware as possible of the people around me and the vastly different experiences of this city that we all have. I’m not sure that I was able to discreetly identify this at the time; I didn’t know exactly why I was starting this project, but somehow this collection of works and conversations came out of an attempt to be fully present. Starting at that moment, and over the past couple months in Baltimore, for me, to be fully present has meant having conversations, or listening in on conversations, that investigate where freedom and joy exist in Baltimore and where freedom and joy could, but does not yet, exist in Baltimore.

The prompt for this project, taken from Nas’ song “If I Ruled The World” (It Was Written, 1996) featuring Lauryn Hill, is a contradiction itself; on one hand, it asserts that everyone has the right to take up space and envision the world as they want it, but on the other, it claims an old-school, hierarchical way of structuring life. However outdated this question might be, it provoked a series of collaborative, artistic responses and conversations by Baltimore-based creatives and activists, who attempted to find a contemporary way of asking the question itself. Artistic collaborators who stepped into this project did not only contribute content but also defined the direction of the entire project and identified new collaborators to pull in. Thus, this collection of unique voices, works and conversations grew organically over the past few months.

When starting this project, my hope was that the prompt would inspire collaborators to imagine their most positive visions of the world, and through that positivity, would be able to thoughtfully and critically investigate the nuances within the struggle for social equity in our city. However, this collection of works evolved to approach art and activism much more broadly, touching on subjects such as health, education, language, public space and more. These themes that emerged in reaction to the on-going threads I set up, questions such as, What makes you feel free? What is special to you about Baltimore? What do you say 100% yes to? ground this investigation in the idea that activism can take many different forms, and is, at it’s root, something that is strongly tied to the ways we live our lives every single day. Instead of being a call for imagination, this project evolved to investigate and exemplify the concrete actions that can grow out of the audacity and the courage that it takes to imagine the world as you want it to be.

This is a call for more than imagination. What if you ruled the world?

Kimi Hanauer
Press Press

If I Ruled the World presented by PRESS PRESS

Afterword

You Come From The Stars , Black People : Through months of conversation surrounding Nas’s It Was Written, Jared Brown and Khadija Nia Adell address inequity, visions of contemporary rulership and the potential of taking ownership over the present.
Cooperation is a Fact of Life : In this conversation, designer and writer, Person Ablach , discusses the absurdity of freedom as it relates to artistic practice and capitalism. These ideas lead us to discussing Person’s vision of more structured ways of being in the world, which require working with others cooperatively as a standard practice.
Lavender Blue Skies : Through an active, collaborative investigation of holistic health, Amy Reid and Brayaria Simms (AKA Greydolf) , embarked on a series of activities together including meditation, swimming, walking, communal meals, collaborative work on creative projects and conversation. These practices resulted in a mutually supportive relationship of one another and the production of a manifesto which extends the authors’ learnings in order to help you become the best version of you!
Learning Yourself to Yourself : In this conversation, Baltimore’s radical, improvisational queen, Bonnie Jones , applauds the extraordinary resilience of Baltimore while inviting us into her process of ‘learning how to be free’ through improvisational music, a medium that inherently breaks down traditional power structures.
Life Experiences: What Happens In Our World? : After a three-month intensive writing workshop centering on the theme If I Ruled The World, a group of young writers and artists from Baltimore City Community College Refugee Youth Project , in partnership with the Press Press team, created a series of manifestos addressing their human rights and wrote powerful poetry about the hardships of exile and their hopes for their native home of Burma.

Number One Is Empathy : In this conversation with Kursten Pickup , Baltimore City Community College Refugee Youth Project Coordinator, Kursten addresses the power of empathy in and outside of the classroom and the incredible resiliency of youth.
Automation; [Application]; : Through months of digitally mediated and in-person conversations, Besan Khamis and Rahul Subhash Shinde , explore the power of automation, abstraction, poetry and humor as they relate to digital public space and Palestinian resistance.
Fight for Your Right to Dream : In this conversation with Bryanna Jenkins , activist and founder of the Baltimore Transgender Alliance, Bryanna reflects on the Baltimore Uprising and asserts that there is power in how you choose to engage (or not engage) others around you.
The Real Artists of Get Your Life! Get Your Life Productions is a youth-run production company whose work revolves around imagining new ways of being in the world, unlocking potentiality and dismantling limitations. This chapter explores their on-going practice and collective members’ visions of their worlds.
There’s No No! Only Yes! In this conversation with Baltimore-native, visionary artist, Loring Cornish , we talk about feeling freedom, love and positivity in the everyday and the role that art and artists can play in creating loving social spaces for democratic engagement.