DEAR TENNESSEE, WE ARE NOT POWERLESS.
A Manifesto For How We Get The Power Back
Where is our power?
Is our power in our clicktivisim?
Is it in our pleads for justice on social media?
Is it in our decision to close our eyes?
Every day we are fed outrage.
Fed distraction.
Fed fear.
Fed political performance.
Fed algorithms designed to keep us angry enough to doom scroll
and tired enough to do nothing.
Do we need more noise?
Where are the new ideas, the new Inspiration, The Information to get real power?
We need context.
We need direction.
We need strategy.
We need imagination.
We need each other.
“
We are not out numbered.
We are out organized.
- Malcom X (El Haj Malik El Shabazz)
The Power Mag is a new printed publication, hitting a news stand in Tennessee, that exists to help us know our power and learn what we can do with it.
To ask big questions. And make space for more than one answer. There is power in information. So we plan to inform the electorate of Tennessee.
This publication asks three questions:
Who has the power?
What can that power do?
How can you get that power?
This is not about yelling on IG.
This is not about collecting opinions. and likes. and comments.
This is not about rants going viral to your friends.
This publication is about understanding how power works.
Who has it.
How they got it.
How culture shapes it.
How money shapes it.
How communities build it.
How people lose it.
How we, the people get it back.
The Power is about sharing the information people need to navigate the powers that be. Until we get the power.
Organizing.
Art.
Media.
Technology.
Spirituality.
History.
Design.
Community.
Economics.
Culture.
It’s all connected. Nothing exists by itself.
Nothing is political. And everything is.
The music matters.
The images matter.
The language matters.
The schools matter.
The neighborhoods matter.
The stories matter.
Attention is power.
Imagination is power.
Community is power.
Presence is power.
Knowledge is power.
Disconnected people are easier to control. But informed people are connected people.
The Power exists for the people trying to stay awake.
The people tired of click baiting.
The people trying to move beyond doomscrolling and into participation.
This is more than a magazine.
This is an archive.
This is a tool.
This is a signal.
This is a movement.
This is for artists. Teachers. Workers. Parents. Organizers. Students. Outsiders. Believers. Skeptics.
People searching for language for what they already feel in their bones.
We are not here to sell outrage.
We are here to help people remember the power they already have.
We are not powerless.
This publication is brought to you by artist Shabazz Larkin and the people behind the Museum of Presence.
If you want to get involved with the power, we need you.
Contributors. Wise voices to share information.
Distributors. Bring our printed paper to your organization or business.
Fundraisers. If you have access to grants or private funds, we welcome your support.
Advisors. If you are involved with organizations in TN that is doing the work, connect us.
Email: thepower@Larkinart.co