Some final thoughts from Chandler Johnson, Creator and Curator of Pick Progress.
Thank you. Thank ALL of you who helped let Pick Progress shine.
📸: @abbiejolene of Novella Brandhouse, @taylormadephotokc , & Ben Lamb
🎥: Footage from Johnson County Community College
“Q: Was there a period where you felt you had something to prove? A: The first 45 years of my life.” This Q&A is the opening description of the podcast episode ‘The Hug Heard Round the World’ from Malcomn Gladwell’s Revisionist History. It is an episode about Sammy Davis Jr., his upbringing, his tactics for surviving and navigating White spaces, and Gladwell argues that Davis occasionally ‘changed’ himself to fit in. Gladwell describes Sammy Davis Jr. as ‘one of the world’s greatest entertainers for the better part of half a century. He was Black. But he thought the best way to succeed in the world was to act as if he wasn’t. Did we judge him too harshly?’ I remember listening to this podcast and feeling compelled to reflect on my authenticity. I wondered whether I was being the most authentic version of myself publicly or whether I had ‘dulled’ myself to fit in at work or amongst friend groups. After listening to that episode, I started working on being okay with being an ‘outcast’ if that meant I wasn’t conforming to groupthink for the sake of being part of the group. In a world that often doesn’t want us to dig up the pains of the past, I started to feel unafraid, and it became necessary to confront the origins of the past that made me who I am. Pick Progress began as a litmus test to help me better understand my identity.
I have never felt more comfortable in my skin than when I was in Africa. In 2019, I got the fantastic opportunity to visit Kenya for two weeks. Even though I believe I was still a stranger in their lands, they still considered me kin. One thing I will never forget is a conversation with a Kenyan who had occasionally traveled to the United States. He mentioned how interesting it was that our neighborhoods and restaurants were designed to section off people into small groups. In Keyna, it felt like most people were living on top of one another. Togetherness felt different when you dropped the white picket fence. As I left Africa, these stories burned in my soul and would serve as a significant catalyst in creating the project now known as Pick Progress.
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly changed my life. Up to that point, I didn’t really listen to K.Dot, except for my grad school roommate playing ‘B****, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ on repeat for the two years we lived together. But one day, while I was working at my first design job, I decided to put To Pimp a Butterfly on in the background. And as each track passed, my mind began to morph and grow, filled with all these questions about being Fo’ Da Culture and being Black in White spaces and just being Black in America. Kendrick’s confession about how he survived a mad city in California, and now, with his fame, how he explores survivor’s guilt, the allure of materialism, and the responsible use of influence, made me think about how much work I put in to level up my life. All the sacrifices. All the pain… and all the joys. I related to his metaphor about a butterfly molded by its environment and now trying to turn all those influences into gifts for his community to see. I wanted to be a gift to the world, but after spending so many years hustlin’, this album was one of the major kickstarters for me to start reflecting internally about who I was and who I wanted to be.
THE ELEMENTS OF A MOVEMENT - STEP NO. SIX
MONITOR, ADAPT, AND PERSIST THROUGH DISRUPTION – The final step to consider when making progress on social issues is the ability to bend but never break, and focus on the goal. Oppositions will strive to maintain the status quo using tactics that may distract the movement from its priorities. While flexibility is essential for any organizational communication, strategic flexibility is paramount for tackling these issues with those who typically have more power and time on their side to withstand change. In a digital era where everything is happening everywhere, all at once, it's even easier to lose sight of the original goal or goals when there are other atrocities yearning to be solved. This is why step six is so essential: monitoring steps one through five enables the movement to see what's working and what's not, while ensuring the movement's overall state remains strong.
THE ELEMENTS OF A MOVEMENT - STEP NO. FIVE
BUILD RESILIENT, STRUCTURED MOVEMENT – For 13 months (381 days) in 1955–1956, over 40,000 Black Americans refused to use the buses, causing severe financial strain. The Montgomery bus boycott succeeded because of a 75% drop in ridership for the year, which hurt the business's tangible structure, forcing opposing leadership to negotiate and change their oppressive behavior. Building a resilient, structured social movement requires combining strategic action items with robust, internal organization to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adversity.
These movements can rarely be a 'flash in the pan.' For example, Blackout Tuesday was a protest to pause from buying or selling products on June 2, 2020, to show economic strength and unity. Some uses #blackouttuesday or #BLM, which, in turn, led users or #BLM, which, in turn, led users searching for or tracking those hashtags to find nothing but solid black images. Some activists criticized this movement because taking one day off from from purchasing products doesn't not have a significant impact on the overall economic structure and filling up feeds with black squares hindered important social and political information from getting out to individuals.
Thus, it key to have a targeted goal that will have tangible impact on the problem and the ability to combat the issue for as long as necessary to ensure the movement's concern is taken seriously.
Collective Harmony by Andrew Sexton (@sextondesign.ai )
My inspiration for the post is the idea that community, and harmony is the only way to survive and thrive together.
Collective Harmony by Megan Louise O'Connell (@meganlouise.design )
The five pick silhouettes in this poster are depicted as overlapping to highlight the intimate closeness shared between members of the Black community. Each pick is unique in shape and color. At the intersections of each pick, a new color is created, representing the impact and change that is possible when individuals bond together with the goal of creating a better tomorrow.
