Robin D. G. Kelley shares “Back to the Future: Complex Movements Make Revolution,” an essay from memory on a conversation with 2022 Knight Arts + Tech Fellows Complex Movements in Shift Space 2.0, a publication exploring new media landscapes. Kelley recollects, “Radical philosopher Grace Lee Boggs (1915–2015) was the catalyst for Complex Movements, which took its name in 2010 after listening to her invoke quantum theory to explain new directions in organizing.”
“They do not measure their work in terms of winning or losing “campaigns’ but in struggling ‘to be in right relationship with change,'” writes Kelley. “[Sage Crump] cautions against having any illusions about the difficult work ahead, and at the same time insists that we cannot afford to be disillusioned, which can happen when we focus solely on resisting state violence and oppression at the expense of our internal struggle to find new ways to be together.”