Octavia Knew: Reflections from SXSW 2025

In March 2025, I had the honor of moderating a panel at SXSW called "Octavia Knew: How Black Women Are Predicting the Future." The panel was well attended, the energy was electric, and the conversation confirmed something I've long known: Black women have been doing futures work all along.

Together with Lauren Williams, Dr. Shamika Klassen, and Carmela Wilkins, we explored how Black women's perspectives offer vital insights that mainstream futurism often misses. From technowomanism to food justice to speculative design, each panelist demonstrated how their work weaves past, present, and future into visions that are both clear-eyed about challenges and rich with possibility.

Thank you Lauren, Shamika, and Carmela for making this conversation so rich, and to everyone who attended and engaged with us. The future is being written by many hands—and that gives me hope.