I’ve been a big fan of the solarpunk movement for years now. I forget when I first heard of it, but it was a bit before the (in)famous yogurt commercial that helped boost the idea. I happened to see the decommodified version first and was excited to see such a visually engaging depiction get so popular so quickly. Since then, I sought out solarpunk fiction and even real-world examples that I could do at home, or otherwise use as proof that this wasn’t just pretty aesthetics.
However, a big point of frustration has been:
seeing how many solarpunk stories feature little to no black people (and how few long form media there is either way).
how certain kinds of people are so quick to dismiss, bastardize, or separate the solar from the punk.
I think these are related.
In my community, folks are often intrigued when I introduce the idea to them, but it’s nonetheless a slight bit nerve-wracking that even the most radical people I know have no idea that what they're doing IRL is the type of stuff others fantasize about.
Too often, media makes mythologies of praxis and underrepresents the role black people play in revolutionary change, or even renders them invisible due to an inherent misunderstanding or discomfort with racialization.
As someone who has always been a huge fan of scifi and fantasy, I’ve long since had to deal with the lack of representation in the media. Even when there is representation, its often token-ish and/or divorced from black culture, especially the black radical struggle.
I’ve been able to find some great inclusive media in the past few years, largely thanks to afrofuturism and black girl magic, but there is something unique about solarpunk, specifically, that I REALLY want more black folk to be able to participate in.
Unlike any other genre of media, Solarpunk is uniquely unafraid to imagine better futures…. dare I say utopias. Most every other genre of fiction has some sort of dystopian element to it, or at the very least just a transfer of modern day problems into a fantasy or scifi world. I hate that! Because that means even in the space of our imaginations, where anything can happen, the vast majority of people cannot imagine what life could be like if things were legitimately better…. If we didn’t have to worry about some form of racism, sexism, classism, queerphobia, poverty, war or other form of authoritarianism. I guarantee you even people who just read that line will be like ‘Yeah of course… thats just human nature’. Smdh. And that is the problem.
If we can’t even imagine humans being better to each other… then of course we will never build a truly better society.
Where would we be if Harriet Tubman and Toussaint Louverture and other enslaved folks could not imagine themselves outside of slavery? If MLK Jr. did not have a dream? If the Black Panthers just wanted to be the black KKK instead of Black revolutionaries championing peace and love?
We need to be able to envision radically better futures if we ever hope to actually solve these problems we’re dealing with today, rather than constantly repeat the same damn mistakes generation after generation. If you truly believe its just ‘human nature’ to be greedy, selfish, hateful, and otherwise apathetic to the world around you…and that we can't do anything about it, then of course you'll never fight to build a better world! It is precisely that lack of imagination that leads people to believe that the best they can do is just to game the system or be the one at the table, instead of mulching the table and feeding everyone, everywhere.
And as much as I love superhero stories, isekai, litrpgs, progression fantasies, space operas, and so on… If the most hopeful stories we create and consume are about individuals being individually strong, smart, powerful, or otherwise personally overcoming great odds to ‘save the world’… but the world itself never actually changes, then what really is the lesson? What's there to hope for besides being a ‘good’ person in a fucked up world?
We have to want more not just from ourselves as individuals, but from all of us as a society.
Solarpunk and its related genres (like hopepunk, cozy fiction, and even some climate fiction) are daring to dream beyond today’s problems. They are imagining worlds that have figured out how to actually (try to) win the fights we’ve been fighting for generations. They still have conflict that feels realistic, both as storytelling tools and as a part of the world they’ve built… but those conflicts are either exceptions rather than the norm, or simply just better problems to have! Creative conflict, if you will, as opposed to the destructive or nihilistic conflicts we often face today. And if you’re wondering what that means, please check out my other writing, because that’s exactly what I have been exploring!
All that being said… all is not lost.
As I've been out in the world more, getting involved with orgs and initiatives I find compelling, I've been noticing how many people are essentially living a Solarpunk life without even realizing it.
Many people are deciding to do what they can to produce the things they consume locally and regeneratively, instead of depending completely on this inherently exploitive, destructive, and rapacious imperial capitalist system.
I've been especially focused on food production and construction because I believe its the key to helping people become self sufficient as anarchic communities largely independent of the state or corporations. If we can feed and house ourselves, we are infinitely closer to truly giving all the power to all the people.