In his investigation of the conjuncture that encompasses the millennial-led protest movements from Occupy Wall Street to the present, William found its most impactful moment to also be its most cloudy and indescribable: 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. How does one cover the wide range of elements and their impacts we collectively see as both separate and singular?
There was the government response to COVID. Reactionary statehouse protests against public health mandates. Black Lives Matter uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd. The presidential election of Joe Biden and Trump’s attempt to steal it, culminating in the Jan. 6 ,2021 storming of the US Capitol.
It was a lot. And many of us were inside and online the whole time.
No single expert, researcher, or movement leader could concisely sum up what we should learn and take away from these moments. Instead, William departs from his format to bring together a roundtable of the people he physically spent this time of global isolation with: members of his collective household, which is part of large housing cooperative known as Spartan Housing Co-op. Together, they explore their lived reality in each of these densely packed historic moments as co-operative members, activists, and friends. They discuss the ways their unique and rare co-operative community provided social support systems that many others lacked in the loneliness and isolation that naturally came with this period, and how this experience could inform models for better living in the future.
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