Radical Imagination

01 · The studio

Source first.

We read the primary source first. Then we make it into something you can walk into, play, or learn with: an exhibition in a church, a game about a shipping line, a Sunday class, a dashboard that watches the watchers.

Every work shows its receipts. When the record is thin, we say so.

exhibitionsVR + ARgamesclassesopen dataarchives

“A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.”
Claudia Jones · 1959 Carnival programme

02 · The work

Four works from 2026.

Each one is in the ledger with its sources, its stack and the rules we held it to.

WTC Oculus · June 2026

01 · exhibition · VR · lessons

Du Bois Does Data

W.E.B. Du Bois and his Atlanta University team made their data portraits for the Paris Exposition of 1900. We brought them into a church in Queens, a room you can walk through in VR, and lessons a class can open in a browser.

The plates on our walls were reproductions. The originals live at the Library of Congress.

Opened: Feb 14, 2026 · True Zion Gospel Temple, Queens
Then: June 19 to 21 · WTC Oculus, with the CUNY Public Interest Technology Lab
Receipts: 72 plates hung in the Paris 1900 Hall, each linked to its Library of Congress record
Open now: 4 web lessons · 6 notebooks · Paris Exposition Wrapped

Start lesson 1 → Paris 1900, wrapped Ledger

title screen

02 · game

Black Star Line

A game of the UNIA, 1917 to 1923. You play an organizer in Garvey’s Harlem, from the first meetings to the ships and what came after.

The footnotes are part of the game.

Launched: October 15, 2026 · plays in the browser
Cards: 78 · sourced cards cite the record; unconfirmed ones are stamped TO CHECK
Sound: Public-domain records, 1919 to 1923

Play → Ledger

Legacy Lectures: Marcus Garvey. Sept 27 to Nov 1, six Sundays, 4PM ET, virtual. Radical Imagination × Black Star Archive + Dr. Jewell Humphrey.

series poster

03 · class

Legacy Lectures: Marcus Garvey

Six Sundays on Garvey and the UNIA: Pan-Africanism, organization, place, culture, economy and memory. With Black Star Archive and Dr. Jewell Humphrey.

Watch, listen or read. Nothing is graded.

When: Sept 27 to Nov 1, 2026 · Sundays, 4PM ET, online
With: Black Star Archive + Dr. Jewell Humphrey
Cost: Free

The class page → Ledger

Project Watchtower's opening screen: The Cost of Enforcement, an interactive investigation into U.S. immigration detention and deportation.

icedata.xyz

04 · open data

Project Watchtower

An open investigation into U.S. immigration detention and deportation: who is held, what it costs, and who profits. Government and independent figures sit side by side, so you can see where they disagree.

The dashboard watches the watchers.

Lead: Julisa Esparza
Since: January 2026
Formats: Web dashboard · VR corridor · lessons for high school and university

Open Watchtower → Ledger

03 · The year

2026, set in type.

Feb14

Our first exhibition opened in church.

True Zion Gospel Temple, Queens

7

Formats in one room, including live calligraphy by Jahaziel Israel.

True Zion photo record

3days

At the Oculus. They saw the work in March and asked us back.

with CUNY PIT Lab

78

Cards in the Black Star Line game.

the game's event file

6

Sundays of Legacy Lectures.

Sept 27 to Nov 1

the year-end bundle

Our 2026, wrapped.

Seventeen cards. Every number sourced, including the one we had to estimate.

Play the year →

04 · Who came with us

With thanks.

Julisa Esparza·Derrick Stroman·Dr. Jewell Humphrey and Black Star Archive·Jahaziel Israel·Damien McDuffie and Black Terminus·CUNY Public Interest Technology Lab·True Zion Gospel Temple·Anthony Starks·Fractured Atlas

And everyone who sat in a headset, signed the guest book or came back the next Sunday.

05 · Support

Keep it open.

The lessons, the game and the archives are free to use. Radical Imagination is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3), so your gift is tax-deductible.

$25Supporterthanked on the site

$100Patronearly access to new plates

$500+Commissioning patronyour name on a plate

Give via Fractured Atlas →

501(c)(3) · tax-deductible · EIN on request

06 · Next

See you in 2027.

New work, new classes and where to find us next.

@imagination.radical → The ledger

Printers call spilled type “pied.” Go on. It sets itself back.

Radical Imagination · Queens, NYC create@radicalimagination.xyz LinkedIn · Instagram

Set by hand in Queens. Minding our p’s and q’s. (Press I anywhere.)