About
Community Futures School includes Porch Talks where participants talk about oppression and imagine solutions, along with activities that analyze Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, and Queer Futurism. Participants explore movies like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the sci-fi film Pumzi, play AfroRithms from the Future to learn the art of worldbuilding, use analytical foresight practices to imagine future innovations in health, and create artistic renderings of those future health innovations using digital tools.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: During a school-year-long journey
The program is described as like an urban think tank and a type of unschooling, where youth ages fourteen to eighteen consider how existing social structures could evolve and transform toward a more equitable future for humanity. Guest presenters work at the intersections of art, technology, and Afrofuturism, including Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, Damon Packwood, Tim Fielder, Alan Clarke, and Ahmed Best. Community Futures School student visionary art has been exhibited at SXSW.edu and at the Stanford d.school’s Museum of the Future in 2022. The program utilizes creative inquiry as the starting point and integrates arts with futures literacy and worldbuilding.
Community Futures School operates within the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA), whose mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for self-expression, culture- and community-building, and the centering of youth voices with a racial equity and social justice lens. MOCHA was founded in 1988 and annually serves thirty-five thousand Bay Area residents, 90 percent of whom are BIPOC, through school, museum, community, and creative youth development and leadership programs, and it collaborates with local high schools so teens and young adults can be community leaders. Community Futures School participants have exhibited their work at the Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab Futures Summer Institute with the National Writing Project and the Future(s) Museum at SXSW.edu 2022.
The Community Futures School was founded by co-directors Executive Director Nina Woodruff-Walker of MOCHA and Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks, with involvement from MOCHA’s founding Teaching Artist, Kaya Fortune, and Creative Director, Roxanne Padgett. Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks is a Professor at California State University, East Bay, a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation, and co-founder of the AfroRithm Futures Group.
Last updated May 23, 2026.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: During a school-year-long journey
The program is described as like an urban think tank and a type of unschooling, where youth ages fourteen to eighteen consider how existing social structures could evolve and transform toward a more equitable future for humanity. Guest presenters work at the intersections of art, technology, and Afrofuturism, including Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, Damon Packwood, Tim Fielder, Alan Clarke, and Ahmed Best. Community Futures School student visionary art has been exhibited at SXSW.edu and at the Stanford d.school’s Museum of the Future in 2022. The program utilizes creative inquiry as the starting point and integrates arts with futures literacy and worldbuilding.
Community Futures School operates within the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA), whose mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for self-expression, culture- and community-building, and the centering of youth voices with a racial equity and social justice lens. MOCHA was founded in 1988 and annually serves thirty-five thousand Bay Area residents, 90 percent of whom are BIPOC, through school, museum, community, and creative youth development and leadership programs, and it collaborates with local high schools so teens and young adults can be community leaders. Community Futures School participants have exhibited their work at the Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab Futures Summer Institute with the National Writing Project and the Future(s) Museum at SXSW.edu 2022.
The Community Futures School was founded by co-directors Executive Director Nina Woodruff-Walker of MOCHA and Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks, with involvement from MOCHA’s founding Teaching Artist, Kaya Fortune, and Creative Director, Roxanne Padgett. Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks is a Professor at California State University, East Bay, a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation, and co-founder of the AfroRithm Futures Group.
Last updated May 23, 2026.
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