This is no tale told with the hope of present change, that hope is not afforded to us.
This is a story given to the future, that those who struggle might know posterity holds us with the same love and regard in which we hold ourselves.

We join our unnamed narrator as she navigates a fraught reality in the wake of advanced climate change and political strife. Located in the Midwestern region of the former USA. Her and her friends are armed with car keys and burner phones as they organize through a cycle of protest. They are united against the arms of systemic violence that would oppress all, in the wake of the killing of two friends on Valentine’s.

Our narrator, an all-action farm worker with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), walks us through the days of these protests. She tells of the heat in the air, the tension and how community gathers and action forms—but mostly she tells us of care; care for the seeds she tends, care for the friends she organizes with, and the way protest is a riot of a party with those you hold court. Most importantly, she tells us of care for the self, how in the mid-times the music on the car radio, the Americana sound that rolls over roaming plains, symbolizes the freedom of endless roads and open sky. The somber verses of Seals and Croft’s ‘Summer Breeze’ blended with the sounds of Midwestern nights is interspersed throughout, reminding of the soft, forgotten nighttime feeling of warm winds.

Not all is the sweet song of storybooks though. A struggle is rarely easy and comes with the tacit understanding that to stand against power is to dream of an almost impossible otherwise. In the face of violence and volatility, fear and betrayal, the narrator and her co- conspiracists come up with this plan for the future; A hologram repository of their collective efforts—this stylish pepper's ghost we now encounter. (Filmed by Chris MacInnes, Styled masterfully by Casey Immel-Brown and sound created and mixed wonderfully by Sam Barbier-Ficat).

So take the time and listen to her. Hear this work that has been cast out to the future, not in desperation, but with hope that the free hearts of those who stood for one another will find purchase in the mind of those who might know a different peace than they were afforded.

Text by David Adebiyi