may we dream
and design felt futures
where our creative being and practice can feel the
sensations of care, intimacy, and liberation
Over the course of three years while writing each book, “felt futures” has quietly existed as an experimental concept I’m now affirming and introducing. The language for this concept is stimulated from an online image (attribution unknown) that shares the statement: “A more human-felt future is a more sensorial one, one designed for and with our senses.”
Feeling limited by the term “human-felt,” I was more excited by the “felt future” within this statement because it speaks to the futures I’ve been rehearsing for years—futures that are sensorial and designed for and with our senses, yes—but also futures that recognize we are creative, intuitive beings meant to experience an intimate relationship with our bodies, our more-than-human worlds, and our dreams for care and liberation.
Felt futures weave sensorial ways of being, knowing, relating, and making that keep us connected and in our aliveness.
Felt futures live inside of us and guide us closer to what we long for and love.
Felt futures open up places of possibility where the presence of care, intimacy, and liberation can be deeply known.
Consider this book collection an experiment in feeling the futures that our creative being (and practice) can live inside.
There, you’ll find us dreaming and designing. There, we’ll begin to know the sensations and presence of care, intimacy, and liberation.
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
Thick Press
PUBLISHED ON
May 2025
DESIGNED BY
Denise Shanté Brown
PRINTED BY
Impresos México
In this collection—part guide, part experimental memoir—I’m inviting you to experience a creative social practice that embodies sensorial ways of being, knowing, relating, and making.
Each book journeys through four pathways of narrative that connect us with the presence of felt futures, speaking from the spirit of creative lineages, abundant creativity, rituals, and devotions. They take different forms, from communal storytelling and letter writing to mimicry and fragmentary writing.
Within these forms, you're invited into the futures I’m feeling—futures where we can deepen our creative politic and our care praxis, trust sensorial knowledge amid systems dependent upon our disembodiment, and tend to the expansive, (dis)abled bodies from which we create.
The books weave visuals, frameworks, inquiries, prompts, and quotes and leave moments to fully feel the futures we desire so that our dreams for care, intimacy, and liberation can come through.
four books that make up the collection with covers showing various shapes formed from an eco-print textile I designed.
the first page of the preface, offering readers background into the memories and moments that led to my writings about felt futures.
the introduction lives inside the collection’s cover and fold-out poster, sharing the invitation, shape, and breath beyond the printed form.
the books and
their essay form
and when we touch our creative lineages (communal storytelling, with guest artists and designers kimi malka hanauer, Una Lee, and Andrea Ngan)
to tend to each other’s abundant creativity (letter writing)
let us listen for and design the rituals we desire (mimicry)
while protecting the energy of our devotions (fragmentary writing)
the sections inside of
each book
Essay — Opening with a summary in prose that offers an overview of the essay and writing about felt futures through hybrid forms.
Visuals, frameworks, inquiries, and prompts — Expanding the narratives through more creative pathways and interactive invitations.
Quotes and open space — Sharing words from other creative beings who speak to the theme; offering moments to feel, dream, and design.
each book softly drops us into felt futures as a living, breathing entity and connects readers to the theme to be experienced inside.
a total of 272 pages across all four books with multiple access points, nonlinear entries into narratives, and sensuous storytelling.
hand-written elements can be discovered throughout the sections of “visuals, frameworks, inquiries, and prompts.”
may we dream and design felt futures is an invitation to consider and contribute to proactive care as a portal towards worlds in which we are whole and held.
denise shanté brown welcomes us into a(n un)folding of time, space and self such that the three can be understood as inextricably woven together—binded by kinships that carry us into the futures we require.
— nènè myriam konaté (they/them)