What is
City of Dreamers?
City of Dreamers is a brand and campaign oriented towards combating food and clothing insecurity in the New York Metropolitan area over the course of Winter 2024/2025.
Date
12-2-24 ​​
Where did the name come from? I imagine it was a play on 'City of Dreams'.
​You are absolutely correct. The “City” we are referring to is a play on New York City being the ‘City of Dreams’, but I’m more interested in building a place, a world, that parallels NYC, but that offers a counter narrative.
New York City means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, including the people who haven’t (yet) experienced it for themselves. When I think of New York, I don’t think of Soho, or Dumbo, or Times Square. I think of grit and grime. I think of the chaos. I think of hardship. I also think of Patsy’s [Pizza], Chinese, and Jerk Chicken Patties with Coco Bread; I don’t get any of those things in Texas. But, in all seriousness, I think of all of those things because in my mind, for every person who comes here to pursue their dreams, or subscribes to the belief that all roads lead to New York, there are dozens…hundreds… of people whose dreams die here every single day. And a lot of times, it’s because of circumstances out of their control. There’s plenty of nuance here that I won’t get into for the sake of time, but that shit breaks my heart.
“A bird born in a cage believes that flying is an illness.” Alejandro Jodorowsky
When I think about my New York—the version that stands out in my mind—I think of the cages that people are born into. I think of scarcity, poverty, violence, and fear. No one asks for the hand they are dealt. You simply do what you have with what you can, and you make something of it. 'Making it', i.e ‘figuring it out’ is inherently creative, and in this case, creativity is not sexy. It is not romantic. It just is. A Maker’s Studio comes from the idea that you do the best you can with what you have and you make a way. The New Yorkers I know and come from are makers, doers, and ultimately Dreamers.
"A bird born in a cage believes flying is an illness." Alejandro Jodorowsky
You touched on it here, but if you had to sum it up, who is this brand/campaign for? In other words, who is City of Dreamers meant to resonate with?
City of Dreamers, in concept and in practice, is meant to resonate with people who:
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Value other people’s wellbeing
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Believe in putting in the work // hard work
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Believe in the power of dreams/manifesting
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Value community/family (chosen or not)
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Value growth // learning
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Are committed to finding a way/figuring it out
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Who know what it is to make a way//to make something out of very little ​
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And of course, you don’t have to believe all of these things for City of Dreamers to resonate with you. I think there are a number of different opportunities to connect with people.
"Where there is alignment people seek membership." Marcus Collins
My New York City is heavily intertwined with basketball and it has been for as long as I can remember. It is a language that we can all understand. Imagery of basketball is familiar, and it was important to me that I remained close to what is evergreen and constant for the people I am thinking about and speaking to even as I introduce difference through language and ideas presented in City of Dreamers. Selfishly, this is also an ode to Jordan Nixon, the lightskin point guard from Harlem who never really knew what she would become even while wearing Maroon and White. I was, and in some ways still am, a late bloomer, and I’ve been overlooked more times than I care to count and somehow or another, I achieved. I won’t get too deep into it now, but I’ll say this: Most people forget, but the turtle won that race.
Up to this point, a lot of the imagery/visuals have been basketball related/adjacent. Why?
[The turtle] did indeed. So why this and why now?
​​Last year, someone very close to me had a cancer scare. I found out shortly before my flight back to College Station to finish out my third semester of my masters. I was beside myself in the worst way. I held it together for the most part, at least that’s how I remember it. I cannot tell you what other people saw when they looked at me. After getting through security, I stopped in a single stall bathroom, and fucking balled. Cried like…this was the beginning of the worst nightmare. I was alone in the bathroom, alone in the airport, and at that moment, there was no one to call. I needed to calm down. I needed something to calm me down.
Thankfully for me, I’d gotten pretty decent at listening to that little whisper—the one we all have— and amidst the emotions, I was able hear it loud and clear.
“No more waiting. The time is now. The time has been now.”
The time is now. The time has been now, and it took that for me to get out of my head and into the world even if I was afraid to be seen. That was September 2023. Like I said, it was only a scare, but in the process of numerous tests, visits and ultimately results, I changed my entire perspective on everything I was doing at the time. It made everything feel urgent in the best ways. It was a reminder that being patient and allowing things to unfold is essential, but so is following your convictions even when other people can’t quite see your vision.
So to that question I say, the time has been now, the time is now, and I feel too strongly about serving others through all of the work that I do to wait for the perfect opportunity to come around. I think I should make it.
What do you hope for this brand, campaign, and pop up?
​I want to be responsible for feeding and/or clothing at least 750 families. I want to enter into community with as many people as possible to bring this dream to fruition. I feel like I’m on the right path because it both energizes and scares the shit out of me. Every time doubt starts to creep in, I think about making it work for the people who need this the most. If it means posting three times a day in hopes that the people who are meant to see this can see it, buy into it (not literally, but kind of), and contribute to this journey, then so be it. I’m okay with people getting annoyed by my insistence. I’m okay if people can’t see the vision because for every person that doesn’t I know there’s someone out there who does, and I will find them. This will find them.
I’m a dreamer, so I have no choice but to believe.