As part of the 2025 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Building Solidarity, Rooted in Justice, Nexus Community Partners and AmbitioUS* co-hosted ReIMAGINE Scale: Self-Determined Power & Community Power in the U.S. The session began with an inspiring fireside chat at Penumbra Theatre between Anasa Troutman, Founder and CEO of The BIG We in Memphis, Tennessee, and Nonkululeko (Nkuli) Tabata, Director of Community Wealth Building at Nexus.
“We wanted to give people a real picture of what community ownership and cooperative work look like when led by Black communities and cultural workers rooted in the day-to-day reality of building something different,” Nkuli says.
Anasa added her perspective through cultural organizing and community building in the South. Together, they helped the room understand that the work happening now is part of a much longer story.
Top Takeaways
- Power is not an abstract concept. It shows up in who owns land, who controls money, who makes decisions, and who gets to shape the future.
- Community ownership is not new for Black communities. We have always built systems of support through mutual aid, faith communities, informal networks, and collective economic practices.
- Scale doesn’t simply mean “bigger.” It often looks like deeper relationships, stronger alignment, and healthier ecosystems. It looks like more distributed leadership and more people practicing power together.
- We need capital that trusts communities and follows their lead, instead of shaping or limiting their vision.
- Cooperative development is cultural work as much as it is technical work. It takes time, alignment, conflict skills, and shared purpose.
Before the fireside chat, Nexus’ North Star Program Manager, Leanna Browne, grounded attendees with a reflection question from Harvest of Survival: An Affirmation Deck Inspired by Octavia Butler: “How are you home building, world building, and universe building?”
Then, Leanna invited attendees to move through hands-on activities by three North Star alumni collectives: Branch Out and Bloom, Mutha Art’preneur Collective, and Voice of Culture. This part of the session helped people experience how:
- Branch Out and Bloom is building worlds that are providing life skills and creative arts education for Black children and young adults in Minnesota.
- Mutha Art’preneur Collective is creating intersecting practices of dreaming, actualizing, and intergenerational healing where Black women can show up and be supported as their full selves.
- Voice of Culture is creating and maintaining Black space for Black people to engage in the study and practice of cultural arts for mental health and physical well-being.
Branch Out and Bloom guided people through reflecting on where they first learned basic life skills. Many realized that the people who taught them the most were family members, neighborhood elders, and culture keepers. It showed how much learning happens within the community, not just within formal systems.
Mutha Art’preneur Collective held a creative and grounding space where participants mapped their dreams and connected imagination to leadership. Their station reminded people that visioning and healing are part of building cooperative models that last.
Voice of Culture brought movement, rhythm, and collective energy into the room. Participants experienced how cultural practice supports wellness, belonging, and shared responsibility. It made it clear that culture is not separate from cooperative or economic work; it is part of the foundation that helps these models grow.
“These activities created space for attendees to engage with their bodies, minds, and spirits,” Leanna recalls. “It reminded us of the power of practicing Black cooperative economics, connecting to our hearts, and moving with our hands and feet collectively for liberation.”
Throughout the afternoon, people saw that cooperatives are not just legal structures or business plans. They are ways of working that rely on culture, trust, and shared decision-making. Many participants left with a deeper understanding of the real conditions communities need to build sustainable ownership models.
This all came at a key time. With shrinking public funding and growing challenges for the social sector, community-owned and culturally grounded models are not just interesting ideas. They are essential. North Star alumni in Minnesota, The Big We in Memphis, and many others across the country are building these systems right now.
Reflecting on the conference, Leanna shares, “I think about call and response, a practice in Black culture rooted in African traditions, which is significant in many ways: inviting collective participation, co-creating a shared experience, and utilizing storytelling to share our stories and pass down knowledge. An example is ‘Ago,’ which means, ‘Are you listening?’ or ‘Attention, please,’ and ‘Ame,’ a response from the group, which means, ‘I am listening’ or ‘You have my attention’ from the Twi language of the Akan people in Ghana.”
What is your response to the call of building solidarity, rooted in justice through Black cooperative economics?
Ago!
Ame!
*Many thanks to AmbitioUS Program Officer Leeann Wallett for helping shape the vision and logistics of this session. Her care helped us bring the spirit of the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship into a national space in a way that felt true to the people doing this work!