We Are Intelligent Mischief

We are Caribbean in limbo. Island people suspended in place.  We are far from home but giving birth to a culture of 'free up yuh' self'. An experience compelling you to explore the distance between here and there through the lens of identity, space, place and sound. 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fete-forward-2016-a-free-up-yuh-self-experience-tickets-26795762848 We freeing up we bodies We freeing we self from we bodies We freeing up we minds We freeing we self in the street We free to make a sound https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fete-forward-2016-a-free-up-yuh-self-experience-tickets-26795762848 With a backdrop of the annual West Indian Day celebrations we are wading in the waters of freedom in a world of Black Survival. We looking at Carnival to deligitmize physical restrictions on our bodies, we looking at Masquerade to show us how to take the streets and shut everything down with a sweet wine and complete ecstatic abandon. We looking at wining to be free from these bodies and we drawing on a lineage of economic emancipation. Out of this we producing a joyful noise, a soundtrack for our freedom and a beauty so captivating we want to see it again every year...  

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fete-forward-2016-a-free-up-yuh-self-experience-tickets-26795762848

We have a SoundCloud account y'all! 

We're sharing our take on pop cultural happenings with a special emphasis on music, afro-futurism/sci-fi, movies, TV, social design, and thoughts on the projects we're working on. Listen to our take on M.I.A's borders song and Star Wars! Share and comment about what you think. 

Happy New Year! 

We're excited for 2016 at IM and for all the potential that it holds. Aisha shared some thoughts on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and how we can imagine what it means to win Black liberation.

"Across our social movements what we are struggling against is big and bad and ugly and insidious. It is deep and frightening and powerful. In order to win we will need to build new kinds of power, engage new people, and shift systems towards something we haven’t fully been free even to imagine. We therefore need to organize in new ways, envision a future we have never seen, and build new interim institutions that live the values of our movement. We need as much creativity as we can muster. We need to engage in (peaceful) guerrilla movement tactics that inspire our comrades and supporters, confuse and neutralize our enemies, and stimulate the hearts of those on the sidelines." ~ Aisha Shillingford 

Check it out her piece on Medium: https://medium.com/@aishashillingford/how-we-can-win-for-blacklives-in-2016-d083d1b0a1e8#.i64l24axc

Are you Black and got white friends that claim to be your allies but don't know what to do with them? Get a race card! These white allies can be your white co-signers that can vouch for you when you encounter the state or the economy. Fill the card(s) in the back with your ally(ies) name(s) and hand it to any racist individual who's in need of fellow White validation. 

We, Intelligent Mischief, are a Boston-based creative design collective that works to: boost imagination and invention, realign action logic, and experiment with new forms of civil society to create atmospheres of change.. We’re looking for an intern to support us in general for 10-15 hours a week from February 2016-July 2016. We are doing the most in 2016 so we’re in need of extra hands to help support us for broader organizational work. Currently we are working on the Black Body Survival Guide (seeking intern), our 2nd Fete Forward Festival (seeking intern), the IM Design School in the spring, a network gathering for the Allied Media Conference, and building our store.

  This person would need to be available in person Monday afternoons for our general meetings about twice a month. We are looking for this intern to support us with our IM school, social media, and network gathering for the Allied Media Conference. This person will have experience in designing workshops, logistics, and social media. We are looking for someone to be hands on during our events/workshops meaning they need to document by live tweeting and help with set up. They will need to be available during some evenings for workshops. This person can take IM school classes for free, receive some IM store gear, and if funding permits, go to AMC with us.

We, Intelligent Mischief, are a Boston-based creative design collective that works to: boost imagination and invention, realign action logic, and experiment with new forms of civil society to create atmospheres of change. We're looking for a project intern to assist us for about 10-15 hours a week starting in late January to June 2016. The Black Body Survival Guide is our multi-media project where we are gathering and creating satirical tips on how Black people can survive anti-Blackness in the U.S. The book is intentionally being written for Black people living in the United States. We are still in our writing stage of our project and we need support in preparing for our book launch and tour.

  We need this person to be available Mondays and/or Fridays afternoons 12-6pm for our in-person planning meetings, hence, Boston-area based. This person will be tasked with overseeing the development of pre-tour workshops, setting up and managing the book tour, and managing social media for the Black Body Survival Guide. We need someone who is skilled in logistics, management, social media, and marketing. They need to make sure we are meeting our target audience during the tour and reaching them via social media. This person will receive some Black Body Survival gear, the Black Body Survival Guide, and may be monetarily compensated contingent on book and product sales.

We, Intelligent Mischief, are a Boston-based creative design collective that works to: boost imagination and invention, realign action logic, and experiment with new forms of civil society to create atmospheres of change. We’re looking for an intern to help us ramp up for our 2nd Fete Forward Festival for 10-15 hours a week. Fete Forward is a mini-festival where we fete leading up to Carnival to explore the role and potential of the West Indian community in Boston and the importance of place by celebrating, uplifting and making visible and accessible the vast forms of West Indian culture through dance, conversation, mas making, folk story-telling, etc. The last festival we had was our first in 2014 where we featured legendary dancehall and reggae dancer and choreographer Blacka di Danca and musical genius DJ The Salivation Army. We believe that we can celebrate and decolonize at the same damn time! For this upcoming festival, we’re planning to expand on our last by possibly hosting a Caribbean Film and Arts Festival, Bringing out a Jouvay Band, and engaging the public in creating and experiencing Caribbean arts as a means to explore liberation.

  We need this person to be available at about 5 - 10 hours per week and meet in person once per week.  You should be intimately aware of the Boston Carnival scene, and Caribbean culture, hence, you must be based in the Boston-area. We want an intern that loves West Indian culture, music, dance, film & carnival and understanding of the tradition. This intern will need experience in event planning, festival organizing, and some understanding of cultural organizing. The work will involve helping us draft up sponsorship letters, create objectives and outcomes, design and plan the festival, and liaise with artists, create outreach and promotional material, and document and archive the project. This person will be starting in January 2016 until September 2016. Compensation TBD (contingent upon sponsorships and ticket sales).

We, Intelligent Mischief, are a Boston-based creative design collective and lab whose mission is to boost invention + imagination, realign action logic and experiment with new forms for civil society in order to create atmospheres of change.

We do this by 1) applying human-centered design, story-based/narrative strategy, and the integration of arts and culture to consulting and training work with movement-focused organizations; 2) shifting culture by creating events, products and building a network of creatives engaged in social justice, and 3) designing multi-media experiments that explore new ways of organizing and movement-building.

We're looking for a social media intern to help increase our social media presence and implement our social media strategy which includes posting witty, relevant content on our social media accounts for 10-15 hours a week starting Tuesday October 13 - Friday December 18.

We need this person to be available at minimum on Monday afternoons between 12-6pm for our weekly in-person check in meetings, and available to attend our events and be part of our work, hence, you must be based in the Boston-area. We are currently located at Make Shift Boston. We do have flexibility around this person’s exact start and end time but it must in between those days and hours. We are looking for a social media savvy individual that has some experience doing social media posts that are social justice oriented, live tweeting, and documenting our events. Our social media posts come from a decolonized progressive analysis. We tend to post creative actions, some radical current events, and updates about our work. We prefer that this person have this internship count as work-study and/or school credit; we currently do not have the means to have a paid internship. We also prefer that you are able. interested or excited to work with a group of Black weirdos, have some creative background, and would join us in our daily twerk breaks.

Through this internship, this person will develop their communications skills, build liberatory analysis and knowledge around creative resistance. They will learn and practice anti-oppression work. They will have first hand experience of a Black led social justice collective and start up. There will be different learning opportunities through event planning, trainings, networking and possibly attending conferences. When money is good, we will occasionally take you out for lunch.

We, Intelligent Mischief, are a Boston-based creative design collective that build projects and consult groups that develop atmosphere’s of change. We're looking for a research intern to assist us in researching for our Black Body Survival Guide for about 10-15 hours a week starting Tuesday October 13 - Friday December 18. The Black Body Survival Guide is our multi-media project where we are gathering satirical tips on how Black people can survive anti-Blackness in the U.S. Our satire is based on what is truly happening to Black folks and how the legacy of white supremacy, structurally oppress us so we need someone's help in getting the #facts. The structures we are discussing and building surrealist satirical tips include: police state, gentrification, climate change, gender politics, education, and more.

We need this person to be available Mondays and/or Fridays afternoons between 12-6pm for our in-person planning meetings, hence, you must be based in the Boston-area. Currently, we're located at Make Shift Boston. We do have flexibility around this person’s exact start and end time but it must in between those days and hours. We are looking for someone who has deep understanding of structural racism, and social justice oriented. They should some understanding of solidarity with different marginalized within the Black identity (i.e. Black trans and non-gender conforming folks). This person will also have expertise in research and a boss at citations. They will be able to critique, analyze, and discuss research. We prefer that this person have this internship count as work-study and/or school credit; we currently do not have the means to have a paid internship. We would like this person to have good organizational skills, some outreach skills, and note-taking. We also prefer that you can work with a group of Black weirdos, have some creative background, and would join us in our daily twerk breaks.

Through this internship, this person will develop their research skill, build liberatory analysis and knowledge around creative resistance. They will learn and practice anti-oppression work. They will have first hand experience of a Black led collective building an institution. There will be different learning opportunities through event planning, trainings, and possibly conferences. When money is good, we will occasionally take you out for lunch.

We wanna rock with you! Join us on August 2nd to rock the night away!!!

Our ancestor, Survival Agent Audre Lorde worked hard for our survival, speaking all our truths as the poet laureate of our hearts. We're following in her footsteps with what we do best, satire. We're speaking the truth of the absurdity of what we face and bringing you the Black Body Survival Guide. We need your support!!

1) Help us bring the Black Body Survival Guide to you. Become 1 of 1000 to contribute at least $5 to our campaign: http://igg.me/at/BBSG/x

2) Attend our Celebration Party: https://www.facebook.com/events/1609792755951412/

We are collaborating with the Design Studio for Social Intervention for a series of public interventions from Juneteenth to the 4th of July around blackness and citizenship. The social intervention will be answering the question: Is the Nigga a Citizen? 

Intelligent Mischief will be setting up our Black Body Survival store that will hold some of our Black Body survival products and people will have 1:1 consultations with agents regarding your Black body survival problems. 

We'll be displaying our pop up store on Wednesday July 1st 6-7pm at Dudley Square. Please stop by to receive your free 1:1 consultation, purchase our Black Body Survival products, and/or donate to our indiegogo campaign. 

Terry Marshall, aka IM founder/Chief Strategy Architect, was on the "Research in the Movement: Civic Media, Political Unrest, and the role of the University" panel on Tuesday June 9th at the Microsoft NERD center. You know a panel is important when it has a colon in the title. The panel marked a closed to Emerson's Engagement Lab's Boston Civic Media conference. We played the role of decolonizing the space as well as having Terry speak about the role of organizers and activist in shifting the narrative on policing and anti-Blackness.