At the heart of a community is its purpose and beliefs. What are the core values that bring the people in your community together? What do you stand for? This is the foundation for understanding and building the identity of the community and is what allows people to connect and align with what it represents. Although the term manifesto is often associated with a political context; in essence, a manifesto is something that outlines core beliefs and allows one to address them and share them with others.
Case Study: A Manifesto for Care
In a collaboration with Arlington Five (A5), a local coffee house in Ottawa, Urban Imaginaries Lab aimed to engage with A5’s community in a collective process of understanding the coffee house’s current role within the neighborhood and for its community, and to explore together what A5 could become through collective engagement and contribution. One of the outcomes of this collaboration was a manifesto grounded in a future vision of what A5 envisioned its community to become. You can find the example here.
Approximate Time: 2-3 hrs
Who: Initial partners, then share it with community members
Materials: pens, markers, paper, scrap magazines, post-its, scissors
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Bring together a group of people that are significant in the community or that share similar values.
Ask yourself: What do you do together? What do you believe in? What is your driving force? How do you envision those values in the future? How do they interact with your reality? Who is included and why?
Write down the answers that come from discussing these questions on a board or large piece of paper. This works like a brainstorming session.
From here highlight the most significant and meaningful words that appeared: what truly resonates with your collective purpose?
These words will compose your manifesto. Then rewrite them in a series of statements phrased such as “we believe...” “we are.....” “we do....” and “we think.....” so that you address the reality in which your beliefs will play out. In doing this, pay attention to how the statements will interact with other people, objects, the environment and society.
The manifesto can take the shape of a narrative, a list, or a multisensory artistic expression, so long as you ground what brings you together as a community in it.