Being a Non-Joiner is Not a Flex

Our Blueprint for Building New Worlds

The rent is due, the bills are stacking up, and the gap between what comes in and what goes out feels more like a canyon.

There’s a collective hum of anxiety running through our communities, a feeling of running a race where the finish line keeps moving further away. We’re told to hustle harder, budget better, to pull ourselves up by bootstraps we were never given. But what if the whole game is rigged? What if the only way to win is not to play?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, especially as my research for the Labor Pains project takes me deep into the archives. In the Frances Albrier collection, which holds records to several organizations of which she was apart, and in the stories of the Empire State Women’s Club, an umbrella organization for Black Women’s Clubs in New York, a powerful truth emerges: during times of economic or political instability, Black women were not simply waiting for the government to save them. They were building their own deals.

This is in STARK contrast to the Welfare Queen stereotype that some Americans choose to believe about all Black women.When the system failed them, they didn’t just cope. They created. They organized community kitchens, childcare co-ops, and informal schools. They built parallel institutions not just to survive the crisis, but to build a world that operated in spite of the exploitative one outside their doors.

This is our historical echo. And it’s calling on us to remember a fundamental truth: Being a non-joiner is not a flex.

There’s a lie we’ve been sold: that our power lies in our individual hustle. But the whitest thing we can do is move as isolated entities. This isolation is the gear that turns the machine of capitalism, making it easy to exploit our labor and keeping us too divided to organize. When our sisters and brothers are seen as enemies or competition, the very ground for community organizing vanishes.

​I feel the weight of this truth in a place like Albany, NY. With a stagnant population and just one high school, the predominantly Black enclaves of Arbor Hill and the South End are often more like disconnected neighborhoods than a unified community. It’s not that brilliant work isn’t happening—organizations like YouthFX are a testament to the creative power within the city. But there’s a deep hesitation to connect. Years of systemic oppression, combined with the painful sting of being disappointed by our own events—events that can feel “ghetto” or hastily assembled next to the lavish functions of white suburbia—has led many to adopt a “no new people” life. It’s a decentralization born from self-preservation.

Today, we are being called to do more than just survive late-stage capitalism. We are being called to build outside of it. This requires a radical act: a complete re-evaluation of our consumer and leisure practices. It requires us to look at where our time, our money, and our energy go, and ask a hard question: Is this fueling my liberation, or is it feeding the very system that drains me?

We’ve seen the $1.4 trillion impact we have on the economy. The fact that the head of Essence Ventures placed our buying power on his portfolio tells us everything we need to know about our place in this system.This isn’t about giving up joy. It’s about redefining it. It’s about finding joy not in consumption, but in connection. It’s about understanding that our greatest resource is each other.

What does this look like today, right now?

• Building Our Own Economies: It looks like creating skill-sharing networks where your talent for braiding hair is traded for your neighbor’s talent for filing taxes. It looks like forming a pact with your friends to circulate your dollars exclusively among Black-owned businesses for a month, and seeing what happens. It means treating our collective economic power as the force of nature it is.
• Practicing Collective Leisure: It means shifting from the “self-care” that is sold to us—the retail therapy, the expensive brunch—to the deep, restorative power of community. It’s a potluck in the park, a community garden where we grow our own food, a book club where we read radical texts and plan for the future. It’s creating our own culture instead of just consuming it.
• Sharing the Load: It’s the childcare co-op that frees up three mothers to work, rest, and dream. It’s the meal train for the new parent or the friend in crisis. It’s the simple, revolutionary act of showing up for one another, consistently and without expectation of payment.

Chances are you’ve probably already begun to make these kids of shifts in your life in response to 2025. Now you can “lock in” for the remainder of the year!

This is the real “labor” in Labor Pains—the beautiful, difficult work of world-building. Our ancestors did this work to stabilize communities for a nation that refused to fully see them. We have the chance to do it for a different reason: for ourselves. To build independent, resilient, and joyful ecosystems that can thrive, no matter what shocks the dominant system sends our way.The blueprint is there, in the archives and in our blood. It’s time to pick it up and build.

Ready to join?

Here are some of my favorite organizations & groups in Capital District Region NY:

1. YouthFX offers a wide variety of programming for those with an “eye” for capturing the world around them.
2. Underground Railroad Education Center is an incredible community and historical resource offering a look into Albany’s complicated history with race and gender.
3. Black Theater Troupe of Upstate NY offers incredible programming to engage all audiences featuring top African American talent in the region.
4. Social Justice Collective of Creative Action Unlimited is a dedicated amazing group of artists from across all disciplines committed to using the arts to teach and inspire dialogue around social justice issues.

And, here are some of my favorite groups & organizations in Bay Area California:

1. Black Cultural Zone CDC offers a vast array of programming that is unapologetically Black-on-Purpose, owned and catering Black communities.
2. B.O.S.S. (Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency) offers programs and resources for housing, health & wellness, and job searching.
3. Artist Magnet offers resources, in-person and online events for artists looking to create and thrive in healthy ecosystems for economic sustainability.
4. Artist As First Responder is a multifaceted interactive arts platform aimed at creative practices that heal communities and save lives.

A VERY Special Offer!

I am hosting two INVITE ONLY Map & Meets in Oakland THIS MONTH on Sunday, September 28 and Monday, September 29.

Want a link to the details (a.k.a the invite)?

This invite is going out only to Subscribers and folks interested in partnering with The Labor Pains Project. Get on The List!