The moniker change from “radicalmatriarch” to “folkweaver” feels like a good time to revisit the question: what is this Folkweaver space about, anyway?
For some of you, maybe the answer is obvious. For others, maybe you’re less sure, and for good reason: readers and supporters have joined me on this unabashedly interdisciplinary ride at really different times in the journey.
Some of you OG folks have been here from the start, when Radical Matriarch was born as a screenprinting-as-activism project. Some of you found this space as we raged about childcare logistics and the flaws of the nuclear family. Others joined in as we pushed against the constructs of traditional education and questioned what it means to be in right relationship with children. And lots of you found this space as we started talking about nonviolent movement building, our role as witness, and our obligation to connect the dots of our personal struggles with those in Palestine.
What do all these threads have in common, as we weave them together in this space?
I’ve generally described my writings here to be about connection, community, care, and co-liberation in a society not (yet) designed for our thriving.
These last weeks, several conversations and aha moments helped me better visualize what I really mean by that, how that translates to this Folkweaver space, and more broadly, how it translates to my life and the lives of so many others doing this work.
In this framework, There is the world that currently exists: built upon the systems of white supremacy + capitalism + patriarchy—where our planet and the beings on it are in acute crises. And then there is the world some of us are working to actively dream into existence: one in which co-liberation is manifested, and all beings and our planet get to thrive.
As my partner and I were talking about this framework in the context of my quest to align my values with my financial freedom, he said, “you’ve been living so squarely in the second paradigm (aka: dreaming the world you want into existence) for most of the last decade, and the thing about that is, the world is still very much the world as it is. And that makes your financial freedom really hard.”
Paradigm shifting away from the world as it is to the world as we want it to be can be a lot of things: it can be creatively expansive, it can be full of possibility, it can connect you with the most kind, loving, creative humans. Also, it can often be incredibly hard work—primarily because, as I wrote about last week, the current system often financially penalizes us for trying to create a better paradigm. It’s nearly impossible to live squarely in the world we’re dreaming up and sustain ourselves financially, without creating a financial tether to the world as it is. (If you’re living off the grid, and somehow reading this, let me know how you’re managing). Those of us committed to dreaming a new world into existence often end up straddling the world as it exists and the world we’re dreaming up in some way or another, in part in order to financially sustain ourselves.
For the first three years in my role as mother, I lived squarely in the second circle: building a microcosm of the world we’re dreaming into existence, by building countercultural communities, gratis. I parented my kids, co-founded several parenting communities and a cooperative forest preschool, ignited art-as-activism projects, and wrote lots of pieces in service of that goal, pro bono. I could only afford to do that because my partner was still squarely tethered in the world as it currently exists, which gave me the financial safety to live squarely in the second paradigm for several years without having to generate income.
When my eldest was three, our family’s financial needs changed substantially, and I needed to begin to financially contribute once again. This meant I began to straddle both worlds: I kept one foot squarely in the world we’re dreaming up together as I continued engaging in our communities, and one in facing the financial realities of the world as it is. I started up my consultancy practice to meet my family’s financial needs, and realized that my consulting work could serve as a bridge between the world we live in and the one we want to exist.
When I paused my consultancy, as I began to mull on what has felt hard about better aligning my financial abundance with my values, I found myself asking: how do I get to live squarely in creating the world as dream it to be and still earn my independent financial freedom?
In a conversation with Eleanor Ford of the Substack Creative Spaces about her piece last week, she said:
It's a catch 22 situation, we are trying to build community connections that help to support people outside of the mainstream capitalist society but we still have to survive within that system.
So many of us doing this work are reconciling with this conundrum, and left to straddle these two worlds for financial safety.
But there’s another real, important reason outside our financial safety for straddling these two paradigms. In doing so, we serve as necessary bridges between this world and the one we’re dreaming up.
So that’s what this Folkweaver space is about: building a bridge between the world as it is and the world as we dream it to be. it’s about naming the ways the current constructs do not support the thriving of self, other, and planet. More importantly, it’s about visioning a better way together.
Some examples:
When I wrote Who in Our Family Gets to be Free, about the trade-offs in our nuclear family when we choose for our kids to be in libreratory educational settings, what I’m really naming is the yearning for our whole family (and everyone else) to get to live in the world as we dream it to be.
When I wrote about Drowning in Childcare logistics and how Divorce is an inevitable outcome of the nuclear family construct for so many, what I’m actually naming is that the world as it is is not designed for the thriving of mothers, and the world we’re dreaming up is one in which our wellbeing is seen as integral to our collective wellbeing.
And when I write about connecting the dots of ours struggles with Palestine and nonviolent movement building, what I’m really saying is that the world as it is disconnects us from the people and the land so much, that an astounding amount of people are not actually able to see the atrocities in Palestine clearly for what they are, and how integral to the world we’re dreaming up it is to break down the fallacy of our separateness and paving a new, trauma-breaking paths forward.
All of these threads weave together the crises we’re facing with the world as it is, and actively work to build bridges toward the world as we know it can be.
How can you support this space’s thriving?
Since I’ve gotten in the groove of the kids starting school, I’ve felt such glee, creative expansion, and what sometimes feels like a boundless sense of possibility bubbling out of me as I write here and dream up future offerings with collaborators I adore.
And, as I’ve named here, it’s financially impossible for spaces like Folkweaver to manifest the world we dream into existence without a financial tether into the world as it is. What that means is, this Folkweaver space can only thrive with financial community support to make the bridgebuilding and visioning that happens here possible. This community of readers can tangibly shape this space into one that thrives.
Some concrete ways you can support Folkweaver’s thriving:
Become a paid subscriber, if you’re able:
Share out posts you love with your people:
Share this publication with like-hearted community:
Support current and future offerings (more to come!)
Help make this virtual space a microcosm of the world we want to live in by introducing yourself and getting to know your fellow readers in the comments
How can you support bridgebuilders more broadly?
Our current constructs, for hopefully obvious reasons, actively penalize their own dismantling, so robust community support for bridgebuilders is really the main pathway that exists to allow us to continue to dream up new constructs. Your presence and your financial support for bridgebuilders who need that are the most tangible ways to help keep the majority of the work squarely focused on visioning, bridgebuilding, and creating microcosms of the world as we dream it can be. The less bridgebuilders have to focus on our financial safety, the more unencumbered we can be in visioning, creating, bridging, and dreaming.
Some tangible ways to support bridgebuilders in your community
Identify folks in your community doing the work of bridgebuilding
Actively support their offerings financially, if they need that and you’re able
If their offerings are free, ask them what other ways you can support their thriving
Share their work out with your wider communities
Actively show up in presence to their offerings when you’re able
In the comments, let’s share other folks doing bridgebuilding work: whether it's folks here on Substack or offline in your own communities. And if you’re a bridgebuilder, let us know that too! Let’s connect and amplify those doing the work of dreaming the world we know is possible into existence.
In thriving,
SarA
Oh, Sara -- this resonates so much with me. I remember -- back in those immediate post-9/11 days when I was in the thick of raising my children and teaching full time, I read somewhere that "we are standing in the gap between the world as it is and the world that we want" and I called it "minding the gap." What's so painful is that here we are 2o-some years later and I'm stil minding that gap!! And the world as I want it to be is even further away it seems. I also just read this essay today by Iljeoma Oluo, and it seems like it's another piece of the puzzle: https://ijeomaoluo.substack.com/p/did-this-radicalize-you-really?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=445692&post_id=149080039&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ytnfk&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email