Reimagining What’s Possible
This summer, Be The Ones launched something new: the Reimagination Lab, in partnership with our partners and friends at the Center for Artistic Activism.
The idea was simple but bold: bring grassroots community leaders together across five creative experiments to reimagine their relationship with the South Carolina State House. Not just the physical building, but what it represents - the power it holds, the distance it creates, and the possibilities it opens.
The Lab invited participants to lean into creativity, wild imagination, and their own lived experiences. Instead of being told how democracy “should” work, they got to dream about how it could work.
Each experiment engaged a different group of leaders, offering five distinct ways to reimagine:
Imagination Workshop: building reimagined State Houses out of art supplies and imagination prompts
DIY Toolkits: using small “do it yourself” boxes of supplies and materials to design their own state house creations
Little Free State House Installation: deciding what a State House should include - literally, metaphorically, or by way of policy - and creating a portable resource box (modeled after Little Free Libraries) filled with civic tools for the community
Storytelling Workshop: a showcase of storytelling led by grassroots leader and Charleston storyteller Minerva King, challenging participants to imagine their stories not just as they are now, but how they could evolve
Housewarming Party: a playful, intimate gathering mirroring a housewarming party, exploring what it would mean to make the State House feel like “home”
These workshops were about more than art and glitter. They were about agency. They were about belonging. And they were about creating community across lines that often divide us - and about reclaiming the opportunity to dream boldly about what democracy can be.
Participants shared that they left feeling empowered and energized. As community organizer and Founder of Black Food Fridays, KJ Kearney, said:
“That was so dope. I am definitely going to take this idea and use it in my own organizing work.”
Others said the Lab gave them permission to pause, to breathe, to - and to connect with others who shared their visions for South Carolina.
The Reimagination Lab is proof that civic engagement doesn’t have to be rigid, intimidating, or confined to sterile halls and marble walls. It can be joyful. It can be creative. It can be deeply personal.
When we reimagine what’s possible together, we don’t just reshape our relationship to the State House - we reshape our relationship to our own power, and to democracy itself.
✨That’s the story we’re writing, one collective act of imagination at a time. Each experiment, each gathering, each story told is another chapter in building a democracy that truly belongs to all of us. ✨
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What story has shaped your journey, your community, your hope? Send us an email at hello@betheones.org - we’d love to listen - and if you’re open to, we’d love to share your story.
Our birthday month isn’t done yet. We’ve got more stories, surprises, and a chance to raise $10,000 to fuel the work ahead. If you’re ready to fuel our future, it would mean the world to us if you would consider making a birthday gift by clicking here.
📚 Together, we’re not just telling stories. We’re writing the future. 📝