Alvin Schexnider, author of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming, talks about the conscious and courageous effort to see hope and to pursue and value things counter to what negative influences would have us believe.
Alvin Schexnider, author of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming, talks about the conscious and courageous effort to see hope and to pursue and value things counter to what negative influences would have us believe.
A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (view book)
Full Book Description:
Radical dreaming is having the hope and courage to dream BIG, no matter who you are, where you come from, or what others might say. The author describes a kind of dreaming that breaks all barriers and knows no bounds, and encourages readers to adopt the habit of radical dreaming—no matter how old they are—as a means to create the positive, inclusive, life-changing realities we wish to see!
About the Author:
Alvin (he/him) is a designer, futurist, strategist, and illustrator. As an equity designer he uses foresight and BizOps strategy to help companies and government agencies make impactful products and services. Besides hanging with his partner and 2 kids, you’ll find him reading N.K. Jemison or a Black Panther comic book.
*If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidsco.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S3E04, Alvin Talks About Radical Dreaming
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: What is radical dreaming?
Sojourner: Big dreams.
Ellison: Someone wants to go somewhere in their heart.
Alvin: As a concept, it's probably something that's so big that any number of people could have a definition of it and it would still kind of hit on at least the way I perceive it to be. But I perceive radical dreaming to be a way of having hope and courage. To dream big about things that are relevant for you, that you wish to see for yourself or your community or whomever.
And the radical aspect of it is kind of touching on or connecting to who you are. So no matter who you are, where you come from, your background, any of those things about you, you are still going to like, pursue it. That is the radical aspect of it. I'm gonna pursue it. Taking those things may be in mind if they're positive, and if they're negative, then saying, “I'm still gonna pursue this thing.”
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About: The Podcast! I’m Matthew. I’m a teacher, a librarian, and I’m your host.
The voices you heard just a moment ago were from Sojourner, Ellison, and Alvin.
Each week we talk about the big things going on in your world with a different author from our A Kids Book About series.
Alvin: Hi. My name is Alvin Schexnider. My pronouns are he/him. I am a designer, illustrator, strategist, and futurist. And I am a Black, cisgender male right outside of Chicago. Got two kids and a partner. And we really enjoy Chicago.
And I am here to talk about the book that I wrote, A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming.
[TOPIC FOUNDATION]
Matthew: Radical dreaming.
Okay, so maybe you’re listening to this alone on a smart speaker. Maybe you’re with your family in your car, going somewhere. Maybe you’re in school, in your class.
Do me a favor, wherever you are. Raise a hand if you’ve ever heard the term “Radical Dreaming” before.
Okay.
Now, let me break those words apart.
Point to your head if you have dreams at night that you can remember.
Alright. Thanks.
Now, give me a thumbs up if you know what the word “radical” means or if you’ve heard it used before.
Okay. Alright.
Alvin, can you help us to understand the difference between nighttime dreaming and radical dreaming?
Alvin: Yeah. So I'll start off by saying I'm definitely not a dream expert. I don't have a PhD or anything like that.
I think there is definitely a connection because primarily I'm talking about dreaming, like daydreaming during the day. Something I did all the time as a kid. And I did it because of the conditions I was in. And I needed, like, that was my way of kind of coping with some of the adverse things I dealt with at the schools that I went to.
So yeah, I'm primarily focusing on daydreaming, but I think I had a conversation, actually, with my sister who's a few years younger than me, so she's also an adult. And she was like, “I do see a connection with like dreams though, because sometimes our dreams, when we're sleeping, are connected to like the wants of what our heart and our mind are focused on.” And maybe we can't say those things yet because we don't know how.
Aspiration is probably way of saying it. Not just daydreaming. Yeah. It's not passive, I guess I should say. It is an intentional action. An intentional sort of state of being.
Matthew: Nice. We are channeling daydreaming vibes, but with intention. Not just slipping off into your thoughts while in class or anywhere else. Instead, allowing yourself to loosen your hold on what is in order to think about what could be. That’s that kind of dreaming we’re talking about.
Now, add in the “radical”.
Alvin: When I think of radical, I think of it as something that is going against the status quo, going against the normal sort of way that we accept things that happen in this world or to us or to our communities, or whatever.
And to me, I think I had mentioned all these different aspects of identity and background, you know, for me, I've had to work a number of years over trauma that I have lived with because of racialized bullying that I experienced in elementary school, through middle school and even some in the high school.
Matthew: Racialized bullying, meaning being targeted because of the color of your skin, your racial, or ethnic background.
Alvin: The daydreaming and the sort of aspirational dreaming aspect of it for me was I know that my worth is more than what people tell me, right? I can't control what people are going to say or think about me, but I know that I matter. I know that I am a beautiful soul. I know that I have things to contribute to this world that I want to share. And I am going to be who I am and I'm going to pursue those things no matter what. No matter what others are saying around me. And that's the radical aspect of it.
For me it was once I made that commitment, like I don't care. I don't care what people are gonna say about me. I don't care, you know. That was a radical action going against sort of the status quo of what I was hearing.
And so that's, you know, it can be so many different things to so many different people, you know, depending on your identity and your background and the things that you value. But the radical aspect of it is the embracing of “This is what I believe in and this is what I'm going to pursue, no matter what other people say I should be.”
Matthew: Let’s take a quick break. And when we return, Alvin shares the power we give our dreams when we pay attention to them and take care of them. And three questions you can ask yourself to lead you in pursuit of your radical dreams.
Alvin: The ability, the gift, the sort of human right to dream… You should preserve that.
And yes, if you do have something that you value, that you want to sort of aspire to, write it down, draw it, make a sketch of it, find someone who you trust who, you know, will support. Maybe they don't know or understand your dream, but at least maybe they're open to hearing it, right? Like, “I don't really understand it, but I would love to hear you tell me about it.”
Those are the sorts of things that I think we can do to preserve our dreams, whether you're a young person or you are a person in sort of the golden ages of your life.
Matthew: We’ll be back in just a moment.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about radical dreaming with A Kids Book About author Alvin Schexnider.
Dreaming about our future is something very, very human. We, as a species, love to imagine ourselves in different spaces or different experiences or different circumstances. That imagination can help us to dream about what changes need to happen in order to help take us to somewhere new.
have no doubt that you dream and that you have dreams about your future.
What does it feel like to dream? Or, more specifically, what does it feel like when you dream about your future or dream about solutions or changes to the problems you are facing?
Sojourner: Good because I can do whatever I want in my dreams.
Ellison: Good because you do everything.
Alvin: It feels… I gotta start with hope. I do a lot of art and projects that are connected to Afrofuturism, right? And I bring that up because the idea of Afrofuturism being that we look to the future, especially folks who are coming from a Black context, and even if today there are things that we see in the world that societally don't feel right, what does it mean to be able to look into the future and know that we're thriving? This community is thriving. The culture is thriving. These systems and issues that are here right now, somehow don't exist. And once those things are gone, what does thriving look like beyond surviving?
And so for me, here with radical dreaming, it is like a conscious effort to see hope. And it is a courageous effort, again, to pursue and value things counter to what our external and internal voices are saying are actually the right thing.
[PERSONAL CONNECTION TO TOPIC]
Matthew: Alvin includes a prompt in the outro of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming that gets us talking about our dreams. This also means it provides an opportunity to be vulnerable to one another, to model trust in what dreams a person shares, and to show respect and love toward how their dreams are being expressed.
Alvin is about to model that vulnerability to us. Ready to receive his dream?
Alvin, what’s a dream you once had that you lost connection with? How did that make you feel at the time? And how do you feel now?
Alvin: Yeah. I definitely have one that's top of mind.
I was a constant drawer/sketcher/painter as a kid. I think because of the sort of traumatic things I went through, I was into art and sci-fi and comic books and dreaming of different worlds and things like that. So art was sort of the physical, kinesthetic, tangible way that I expressed, sort of, the things that I was into. I made zines and comic books and things like that. I did so much of that and took a lot of classes as a kid and, you know, camps and things like that, that in my high school yearbook, I'm pretty sure there were at least a few comments from other classmates, like, “You're gonna be a great graphic designer” or, you know, “Artist someday.” Like, “I can't wait to find out what you do.”
But when I went to college, it wasn't pressure that I got directly from my parents. It was more kind of internalized as a minority and, you know, like I need to make sure I spend my educational experience wisely. I tinkered between law and business and I eventually ended up going to business school.
I remember taking a couple of art classes my first two years in college, and then I just stopped. I literally just stopped and I just let that aspect of myself kind of die, which feels so sad to say, that creative aspect of myself.
And it wasn't until maybe about 2017, the Black Panther movie came out and when it came, I used to read Black Panther comic books, and so when it came out I was like, “Wait a minute. I used to draw this stuff as a kid. Well, it's been, I don't know, 20 years since I was. Why am I not still creating art? Why am I not expressing who I am in a way that I can see, that I can touch, that other people can see?”
And like that's just a part of me that is so critical. It's so integral to who I am and I feel like I suppressed that for so long and it's just now that I'm starting to reconnect to it. Also, I have two kids. I have two kids. I have a five and a six year old, so they forced me to draw and literally they're like, “Yeah, daddy. You're doing art with us now.”
It is the biggest gift. It is the biggest gift. And so I think a combination of these things have brought me back into a place where I am feeling more alive and more connected to, I think, sort of who I actually am.
Matthew: If we are lucky and if we are open and if we are willing, we can keep dreaming all throughout our life. The things you dream about today might go away. Or they might change into something new. Or they might combine with other dreams.
But Alvin reminds us that it’s that ability to dream itself that instills us with a sense of hope. And that is a very important quality indeed.
Alvin: I think a big, big dream that I have, and I have to have it, is just seeing no matter someone's background, Black, white, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, trans cisgender, economic status, I dream of a world where everyone is accepted. Because that is, I think, the thing that I yearned for as a child, that the school system I was in was not…
I’m so appreciative that you are a school librarian.
Matthew: Awww… thanks, Alvin! School librarians rock!
Alvin: Like, having someone like you honestly would've been amazing. But the school system wasn't able to give me that space where I needed acceptance andI want that so much for everyone to be able to have. And so I think at my core, that's probably the most important dream that I, that I sit with and is why I do the work that I do and why this book was so important for me to be able to write.
Matthew: We’ve spent most of our time together reflecting on how to honor, protect, explore, and nurture your own dreams. As we close our time together today, I want us to look outward to the ways we listen to, support, and honor the dreams of others.
What should it look like if we are that person, on the receiving end of someone’s dreams?
Alvin: I think, so, in that instance, that person needs to be understanding and humble and willing to listen, despite whatever sort of assumptions they may have inside themselves about, “Oh, this idea isn't good. This idea is dumb.”
I hate saying that word, but these are the things that people say. “Oh man, that's such a stupid idea.” “I don't want you to hurt yourself or make a mistake like I made.” “That's not how I would do it.” Right?
And it has nothing to do with the person. In fact, you may want to… Your intentions may be to protect that person because you care for them. But the way that it comes off is that it can be limiting. So I think the listening aspect, the humility, the humbleness, is really important. Those are things that we can demonstrate to other people when they're sharing their dreams with us, even if we don't understand them or even agree with them.
I also think, and this takes even, this is probably the next step, but I think it can be incredibly powerful, is like the questions you just asked me, like, “What dreams did you have as a child or when you were younger that you know kind of went away? Did you reconnect with them? Or how do you feel about the fact that they went away?
Like, you sharing some of those reflections for yourself with other people, while you're having this conversation, can be incredibly empowering for them so that they realize, “Okay. This person also dreamt of something and that's beautiful. And maybe there's something that I can learn from that that can help me preserve it.
And I'll give one more. I think one more thing that we can do to help others feel comfortable dreaming is sharing a current dream that you have. So, what current dream do I have? ”I feel so silly saying this, but, like, this is a dream that I have. And I'm, I'm saying this just so that this conversation can feel safe for you. And honestly, maybe this is good for me to just say it to somebody to get it outta my head.” Maybe it'll feel more attainable if I do.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Alvin Schexnider, author of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming, for joining us today. And special thanks to Sojourner and Ellison for lending their voices to this episode.
Sojourner: My name is Sojourner. I'm six years old and I live in Illinois. I like to read and do art.
Ellison: My name is Ellison. And I live in Illinois. And I’m five.
Alvin: I forgot to ask you this, but what's your favorite thing to do? Um,
Ellison: Playing on the slide.
Alvin: Playing on the slide. Do you have a dream about something you'd like to do in the future or a place you'd like to go?
Ellison: Go to a ball factory day.
Alvin: A ball factory is a play space here, right? You went to a birthday party yesterday. You wanna go back?
Ellison:You have to go on the highway.
Alvin: You have to go on the highway. Okay, cool. Now I know how to get there..
Matthew: A Kids Book About: The Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory.
And this show was brought to you by A Kids Co.
Follow the show wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
Join us next time for a conversation about design with A Kids Book About author Jason Mayden.