The Future is Present: A Casting the Vote Project

“We projected ourselves into a future in which we are loved absolutely and we rehearsed our lives there.”

The Future Is Present is a process and a practice, it’s a model for building community in a very small and incredibly powerful way.

Led by artists Charlotte Brathwaite, Justin Hicks, Janani Balasubramanian, Sunder Ganglani, June Cross, and Alyssa Simmons, the project built a small community of Black and Indigenous young people and small community of young artists from Bard College* to spend seven weeks cultivating intimacy and discourse.

THE FUTURE IS PRESENT (TFP) is a seven-week performance and action laboratory that centers the voices and vision of Black and Indigenous young people, and builds concentric circles of solidarity around their demands on our collective future. These demands will be amplified through a series of rigorous, joyful, and high-distribution artistic interventions.

A co-production of Fisher Center at Bard, the Bard Theater & Performance Program, and Casting the Vote.

Co-commissioned by Live Arts Bard and New York Live Arts