We envision/dream a West Philly where porches are portals to story and connection, where parks invite the flying of kites and gatherings in light and making. We dream of west Philly where there are sumptuous community dinners in the graveyard, where folks weekly gather to share stories and dance and make music together. We dream a west Philly where the real estate developers are supplanted by giant and small land trusts and there are acres and acres of community gardens. We dream a west Philly where all the businesses are co-ops and the language of collective business running and discernment is a common language. We dream a west Philly where solar is on every house and the neighborhood produces enough electricity for Parkside and Germantown. We dream a west Philly where reparations have transformed the spiritual and wealth landscape and there is a culture of dignity in housing, food access, and community care/well being. We dream a west Philly where Mill Creek runs through the neighborhood again and becomes a center of life and imagining, where folks canoe and lallygag and build giant puppets and eat pawpaws on the banks of Mill Creek.

We dream a west Philly where the Lenni Lenape have land back and their knowings are centered and honored and people remember the stories of the land before dispossession but also the the story of the taking so that we remember that enough to resist the colonial urge still in our muscles. We dream a west Philly where there are no cops and circle practice is how we lean into conflict and harm and healing and repair is how we live, how we connect. That healing practice/body practice is in every park and porch and library. 

We dream a west Philly where when people walk down the street it takes hours because folks stop and greet one another and there is no rushing, connection is the currency, relationship the religion. We dream a west Philly when qi gong and dancing circles are everywhere. We dream a west Philly where the library offers books but also records and welcomes the stories of the community to be told, embodied or in video or danced or in murals. We dream a west Philly where paintings of our community vision are on every block like the Zapatistas vision of the restoration of the commons as we look and see the vision being realized. 

We dream a west Philly where each block gathers monthly and shares celebration, concerns, needs, and dreams and we wonder and imagine together leaning in to care for one another and celebrate our becoming.  

We dream a west Philly where the community is invited to turn every trolley into an art trolley and there are annual trolley decorating days where people turn the trolleys into the visions they carry for their lives and depict the community and their spiritual selves.

We dream a west Philly where we make plays of our own stories and teach each other how to perform them. We dream a west Philly where no one is a stranger. We dream a west Philly where study circles come together to learn skills, remember the ancestors, read and learn from each other and consider what that means for the community.

We dream a west Philly where when someone visits they feel the wholeness, they can sense and taste the ease and welcome. We dream a west Philly where what one loves becomes what one can share and offer and being is the basis for thriving.