Tending Futures

07/07/2026

We often hear conversations about the importance of “diversity” but for many Black mothers, the question begins somewhere much deeper. It begins with safety. It begins with asking whether our children will be protected, believed and treated as children when they enter spaces where they may be one of only a few (or even the only) Black child.

This carousel isn’t about teaching fear. It’s about naming the invisible labor Black mothers have carried for generations: preparing our children to navigate a world where they are too often perceived before they are seen.

The murder of Nolan Xavier Wells reminds us that these conversations are not hypothetical. Black families should never have to weigh the possibility of violence when deciding where their children will learn, play, worship or grow.

Every child deserves to experience childhood without carrying the burden of surviving racism and every parent deserves to send their child into the world believing they will come home.

We grieve with Nolan’s family. We refuse to let his name become just another headline.

Protect Black children.

07/06/2026

Today at 3:00 PM EST, our Founding Director Assata Dela Cruz () joins Dr. Sarah Nahar for a conversation titled:

From Assata Shakur to Assata Dela Cruz: Palestine, Black Power, and a Durable Revolution for All.

Together they’ll explore what it means to inherit movements, how Black liberation and Palestinian liberation remain deeply connected and what it takes to build communities/organizations capable of sustaining generations to come.

This conversation is part of the Interfaith Action for Palestine (IAP), bringing together a coalition of faith-rooted activist organizations for critical intervention against Christians United For Israel (CUFI), the largest “pro-Israel” organization on Turtle Island.

This marks Tending Futures’ third year participating in IAP and each year reminds us why this work matters. Our mission has always been rooted in tending future generations through cultural revitalization, community care, birth justice and collective resilience. We believe that caring for one another, protecting land, confronting systems of oppression and being in solidarity across movements are all part of the same work.

If you’ve been wanting to join the conversation, this is a beautiful place to begin. Swipe to see today’s featured session and the full online schedule for the next two days.

📍 Today | 3:00-4:00 PM EST
💻 Online & free to attend
🔗 Register: interfaithforpalestine.com/online

06/20/2026

This Juneteenth, may we remember that freedom is still unfinished work. May we continue to free ourselves from systems that seek to divide, exploit and disappear us. May we choose each other again and again.

Because we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams and because no one is coming to save us. We keep us safe. We keep us fed. We keep us free.

Happy Juneteenth. ❤️🖤💚

06/16/2026

Mobile is our home too. We were born here. We are raising our children here. We pray here. We bury our loved ones here. We organize here. We dream here.

And because we love this place deeply, we reject the idea that LGBTQ+ people, transgender people, Two-Spirit peoples or Q***r families are somehow separate from “the people of Mobile.” We ARE the people of Mobile.

The attempt to frame Pride as an outside ideology imposed upon our city ignores a simple truth: Q***r and Trans people have always been here. We have always been your neighbors, classmates, coworkers, faith leaders, artists, teachers, healthcare workers, parents, children and grandparents.

Many of us are Black. Many of us are Indigenous. Many of us are people of faith. Many of us are all of those things at once.

At Tending Futures, our mission is to tend future generations by revitalizing cultural practices, birthing knowledge and building community resilience. We know that resilient communities are not built by deciding whose children belong and whose do not. They are built when every child knows they are loved, valued and safe.

We share a concern for children. That is EXACTLY why we speak up.

Children deserve honest information, supportive communities and the freedom to grow into who they are without fear, shame or political attacks. They deserve adults who will protect them from violence, bullying, homelessness, poverty, racism and isolation. They deserve to know that if they are different, they are still worthy of belonging.

As a Black and Indigenous-led organization rooted in the Gulf South, we also recognize the dangerous history of language that claims certain groups are threats to children or society. Throughout history, that rhetoric has been used against Black communities, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, religious minorities and LGBTQ+ people alike. We know where that road leads and we refuse to walk it again.

We believe faith and inclusion are not opposites. We believe family comes in many forms. We believe every child is sacred. We believe every person deserves dignity. And we believe Mobile is big enough for all of us.

The story of this city is not one of fear. It is one of resilience, survival and community. From Africatown to the bay, from church pews to masjid prayer rugs, from tribal grounds to neighborhood porches, our strength has always come from our ability to care for one another across difference.

That is the Mobile we know. That is the Mobile we love. And that is the future we are committed to tending.

05/17/2026

Two things: we are currently updated the servers for our website so it’s down. Hopefully we’ll be back working and much better within the next two days!

Also we have a community need of $485 in the next two days if you’re able to contribute to our mutual aid fund:

The Earth & Sky Collective Fund is a grassroots mutual aid fund dedicated to empowering Black and Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit peoples. We are committed to creating a community-based network that supports our most vulnerable members, recognizing that our liberation and well-being are essential to...

05/09/2026

Especially with everything unfolding currently, Tennessee is being reduced to a symbol of racism, reactionary politics and oppression. And while those realities absolutely exist, that is not the full story.

As a Black and Indigenous-led organization rooted in the US South, Tending Futures believes it matters deeply that we tell the whole truth about this land and the people who have fought for it. White supremacy depends on historical amnesia. It wants us disconnected from the generations of Black and Indigenous people who resisted before us because when we forget them, we begin to believe liberation has never existed here.

But it has. And it still does.

We refuse to erase the work our ancestors and communities have done and continue to do across the South. Our stories are not only stories of suffering. They are stories of resistance, creativity, kinship and ongoing survival.

The South has always contained both violence and rebellion. We come from the rebellion.

04/15/2026

03/17/2026

Food is sacred. It is care, survival and sovereignty. It should never be weaponized. Yet for decades, the US blockade has deliberately strained Cuba’s food, health and energy systems. What we are witnessing is not scarcity by accident but by design.

And still, the people continue to tend. Farmers across the island are leading powerful agroecological work rooted in land, resilience and community. They are building futures despite ongoing harm.

This is a moment for us to move beyond words and into material solidarity. Funds raised through this effort will support solar-powered equipment for farmers to transport harvests, irrigate land, increase food production and strengthen low-carbon, community-rooted economies.

From the Gulf South to the Global South, our struggles are connected. Climate justice is not abstract. It is about land, food, water and the right to live with dignity.

Join us in collective action.
Register for the March 18th webinar and be part of this movement.
foodsovforcuba.org

02/21/2026

We are sharing this reflection during Black History Month because the War on Terror is not only a story of foreign policy and global conflict but a continuation of the long domestic war against Black communities. Black history is not separate from this moment. It is central to understanding how surveillance, policing and state violence expanded under the language of “security,” and how Black Muslims have lived at the intersection of every system built to control, criminalize and erase.

Much of the public reflection focuses on foreign wars, national security and the rise of Islamophobia against Muslim communities broadly. What is rarely named is how deeply these policies were built on frameworks of anti-Black racism and how Black communities, particularly Black Muslims, bore the brunt of state violence long before and long after 9/11.

➡️ tendingfutures.org/blog