Tending Futures

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.

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:

Earth & Sky Collective Fund: Uplifting Black and Indigenous Women & Two-Spirit Communities 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...

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.

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

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

Before you begin, a gentle note: this toolkit was created with the understanding that conversations about systems like ICE can bring up big feelings, especially for Black and Indigenous families. Move through it at your own pace. Take breaks. Let the body lead when the mind feels full.

This resource is an offering, not an expectation. Use what serves you. Leave what doesn’t. Adapt it for your family, your classroom, your circle. Our hope is that it supports safety, honesty and connection without adding fear or burden.

Thank you for being part of a future rooted in care, truth and collective survival. If this resource supports you, consider sharing it with someone who may need it. That’s how this work travels.

What’s happening in Venezuela is not isolated. It is empire doing what empire has always done.

Militarized “solutions” are never about liberation. They are about control, extraction and reminding the world who is allowed sovereignty.

Black and Indigenous liberation demands that we name this clearly. We can oppose authoritarianism and reject foreign occupation at the same time.

If your politics make room for empire, they will never make room for our liberation.

What’s happening in Venezuela matters, not because of headlines but because of people.

👉🏾 Read the full break down on why Black and Indigenous solidarity requires rejecting militarized intervention and standing with sovereignty.

🔗 tendingfutures.org/blog

We’re sharing this because it matters.

At Tending Futures, our paid services are not separate from our mission. They are how we sustain it. Birth work, herbal medicine, spiritual care and cultural teaching are community programs rooted in ancestral knowledge, not commodities.

When you pay for care here, you are helping fund free and low-cost births, community clinics, herbal support for elders, mutual aid for families in crisis and the fair compensation of the practitioners who carry this work.

Sliding scale is justice.
Sustainability is care.
And paying for services is one way we practice collective responsibility.

Your support doesn’t disappear into a pocket. It ripples outward into our communities, keeping care accessible, practitioners supported and culture alive.

Yakoke for tending futures with us.

UPDATE: We’ll only be open tomorrow for those that need to pick up orders. Check your email for scheduling if that’s you!

Holiday rhythm at Savage Daughters🎄

OPEN: Monday, Tuesday, Friday
12–8PM

Wednesday is pickup only.
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: we rest.

Thank you for honoring our winter pace.
🖥️ Online orders are always open.