World-building at world’s end: Our responsibility at the precipice of catastrophe

By Alli Rolle, with you in the now, and the world to come

Here we are fragile, but not yet broken. Here we are rallying in defiance. Here we are with our ancestor’s breath fresh in our lungs. We are at this moment together. We are facing this moment with eyes wide open. It is now that we summon the screams in our chest. It is now that those sounds must create anew.

This essay seeks to salve the soul. 

This essay seeks to speak to the screams in your chest. 

I hope this reading serves as a communion, as a summoning toward collective action. 

I hope this reading addresses your despair. 

And I hope it prepares you for the work that is to come.

First, we must acknowledge that we are at the precipice of catastrophe. We stand in horror as the state incapacitates us mentally, physically, and spiritually. We tremor as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (POC), Queer, and Trans bodies are targeted and attacked. 

We are stunned, and we are terrified. 

The reverberations of this moment wrack through our collective bones. It incapacitates us, driving into the spine, and wedging a stake into our collective hearts. This moment is haunting, one that relentlessly pursues our unwavering and unmoving surrender. This moment is disturbing. It seeks to do away with our presence and very existence. 

Yet here we are at this precipice. Here we are fragile, but not yet broken. Here we are rallying in defiance. Here we are with our ancestor’s breath fresh in our lungs. We are at this moment together. We are facing this moment with eyes wide open. It is now that we summon the screams in our chest. It is now that those sounds must create anew.

As an activist, I often reflect on the consequences of the moment. I reflect on our despair, but I also reflect on our futures. What this moment calls for is a turn toward the collective. A turn toward the elusive. 

What this moment calls for is a summoning. For communion at the site of imagination. This moment calls on us to renew our purpose. It calls on us to build new worlds.

As fundraisers, we are required to take part in world-building at world’s end. We are required to compile our knowledge(s), experience, and ambitions to create futures beyond the current epoch of systemic and social violence. Right now, we must begin composing strategies, networks, and movements that bring about life possibilities in the midst of turmoil. It is only in doing so that we may survive the horrors of the present. 

World-Building at World’s End

As articulated by Kelly Hayes in Let This Radicalize You, we must ground ourselves in the here and now and remember that the world is much bigger than this moment. While this may seem impossible, it is a challenge we have no choice but to face. To survive this moment, we must dare to see beyond today. We must dare to see beyond ourselves. We must turn toward one another if we are to tear down and build again.

We can begin by sharing our knowledge in grounding places, in the spaces we reside in and interlock with. For some of us, this involves sharing acquisition strategies. For others, it is active participation in capacity-building. 

I have seen incredible movements manifest from the mingling of collective minds. I have seen movements made by radical acts of defiance and love. As fundraisers, it is our responsibility to share with our communities, and all communities forced into the zone of inhibition. This means we must use our skills to ensure safety and our financial, nutritional, and spiritual security. 

Our knowledge has given us the means to create strategies that bolster the capacity of community programs. It has given us the ability to foster economic, housing, and food sovereignty for our communities. It has given us the cache to create free courses, workshops, and roundtable discussions. It calls on us to serve as mentors to our youth and collaborators in liberatory spaces. 

To participate in constellations of knowledge is to form kinship at world’s end. It is in this kinship that we self-sustain, and it is in this kinship that we may survive, and one day again thrive. 

What I am imploring of you is a commitment to upending knowledge hierarchies in the pursuit of something greater. What I am imploring of you is a reimagination of your purpose, and how your knowledge can transform time, atmosphere, and space.

Beyond Ends to New Beginnings

It is our responsibility to produce efforts that move us toward liberation. We spend our careers cultivating wealth for organizations, we must bring these skills back into community spaces.

It is at this precipice that we have the opportunity to create anew. We may conceptualize this moment as what Jennifer James calls “the bottom” in the paper “A Theory of the Bottom: Black Ecofeminism as Politics.” “The bottom” is a forced site of residence where we may reconstitute the future. It is at the bottom that we think, coalesce, and take collective action. It is at the bottom that we meaningfully practice community care. 

As fundraisers, we must participate in the composition of new systems of care in kinship with artists, scholars, cultural workers, youth, elders, and a host of others. This means we must reconceptualize our roles beyond the confines of job description to understand how our skills bring about the worlds we seek to create. 

In my work, I use my skills to create spaces, supports, and food sovereignty for Black, POC, and Queer youth. I use my skills in collaboration to ensure that communities thrive. 

For you, your contributions may manifest differently. However, your ambitions should be the same. 

It is our responsibility to produce efforts that move us toward liberation. We spend our careers cultivating wealth for organizations, we must bring these skills back into community spaces. This means we must reconceptualize wealth, to embrace a definition that foregrounds collective empowerment. This means we must jump into the battle against systemic violence and help create spaces for respite and reconstruction.

To prepare for this work, we must reimagine our role in collaboration with those around us. We must think beyond acquisition and retention to bring about survival and sustainability. The work we do in tandem with others will serve as a salve to the harms we have endured. The work we do in tandem with others may serve as a map toward new worlds yet to come. 

What I implore of you is to embrace a new understanding of your role, of your position, of your purpose. What I ask is that you connect with communities, and become a part of grassroots movements. What I ask is that you prepare for this work to begin, and for it to start imminently. 

I will not promise you a gentle path out of darkness, but I can promise my presence at this cliff’s edge.