In Favor of Imagination
Reject capitalism for a few minutes today and feed your imagination + creativity.
If you’ve had a conversation with an abolitionist, you’ve probably heard us go on and on about imagination. I love talking to people about how much more we can imagine for ourselves and our world when we release the shackles that capitalism has on our minds. When we nurture our imagination and creativity, together we can come up with alternatives to the soul sucking lives we’re reduced to. We deserve more than working ourselves to the bone until the day we die. We deserve joy and pleasure, fulfillment and rest. “From each according to [their] ability, to each according to [their] needs,” or whatever Karl Marx said.
It is important to remember that in our dreams of abolitionist futures, there must still be ample amounts of work put into maintaining dynamic, safe, accountable, sustainabe communities. This isn’t easy work, and the project of abolition requires that we create dynamic solutions to the complex problems that arise within any community, even moreso in our communities that are locked into battles against all the -isms and -phobias that exist.
But I’d take the work of contributing to and upholding my community over a 9-5 anyday. Catch me teaching the niblings on the commune about regenerative agriculture and pickling veggies, reading and writing in my barn studio, and leading conflict resolution sessions for teens at the community center. Cause that’s the work I’m called to, and that’s the life I can imagine for myself.
I dare you to feed your imagination and creativity today.
To take my own advice, I took a big step recently and launched my first website!
This was weeks in the making, but really a couple years overdue and I still can’t believe I’m finally starting to take myself and my ideas seriously. There are so many projects, collaborations, and other seeds I’m ready to sow and share. I’ve recently read essays and notes by Alexander Chee, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and huiying b. chan on the importance of continuing to write in the face of habits, systems, and people who may try to convince you otherwise. Their words have inspired me to find the time to pour into my ideas and writing this summer, and I’m enjoying the fruits of that labor as we transition into the harvest season that is Fall.
If you want to keep up with my facilitation work, writing outside of Substack, curated reading lists and multi-media study guides (coming soon!) check out Jasmine-Butler.com
Recently, I’ve gotten into collage making using Shuffle, Pinterest’s new invite only (🙄) collage app. I’ve been wanting to get into collaging for a long time now, excited by the satisfying brain itch I get from making a whole out of fragments. Collages are a pretty good visualization of what my thoughts and ideas look like in my head, and I love being able to express ideas in multiple mediums. I’m really excited for upcoming projects using poetry, prose, zines, and collages all together. Why not? I strive to be less rigid, less binary, less restricted by form and convention and borders and the like. Imagination is a muscle and a practice, and visualizing ideas through collage has been a beatiful exercise for underused parts of my brain.
It’s hard to resist hustle culture’s message of perfection. Not everything we create must be monetized, and not everything we create must be perfect before being shared with others. I’m writing this to myself as much as I am to y’all.
Reject capitalism for a few minutes and feed your imagination today. Imagine what we can do when we believe that otherwise worlds are possible.
J. Butler, Notes of Octavia E. Butler. Digital collage, 2022
Suggested reading: A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler by Lynell George. Order on bookshop: https://bit.ly/3QV5pps
J. Butler, Kids Just Wanna Heal. Digital collage, 2022.
Suggested listening: Cleo Sol, Rose in the Dark. 2020.
J. Butler, SLut! Digital Collage, 2020.
Suggested reading: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Buy it on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3QRj68Q
Suggested listening: Lil’ Kim, Hard Core.
If you’ve tried something new recently to feed your inner child, reconnect to your creativity and imagination, or simply to say f u🖕🏽k you to capitalism, share with me in the comments what it was and how it went!
Bonus tracks: Danielle Ponder’s hauntingly beautiful new album Some Of Us Are Brave. I discovered her just recently and I’m hooked.
Til next time, lots of light and liberation,
Jasmine Renea
"We deserve more than working ourselves to the bone until the day we die." Yes!!! I also love your emphasis on the work you are CALLED to do (not the work you should be doing or the work you could easily be successful at). These beautiful collages are such a great example of assemblage making ✨. Thanks for offering your art in all it's forms!
I use shuffles too! I love reading your writing and seeing your collages :)