The 2025 Future Story Project is a three-week NEH Summer Institute blending onsite and online formats. Participants will gather in person at Sonoma State University for two weeks, from Sunday evening, June 15, to Friday, June 27, 2025. The program also includes synchronous online sessions scheduled before and after the onsite portion.

Pre-Institute (online): Monday, May 19, 2025: A one-hour webinar will be offered at a time to be determined based on maximum participant availability during the week of May 19th, 2025

Main Institute (onsite at SSU): Sunday, June 11 to Friday, June 27th

Post Institute (online): TBA

———————————

Sunday, June 15, 2025
10:00 AM-3:00 PM Check-in at SSU’s residence hall
4:00- 6:00 PM Opening Workshop: Scenes from Future’s Past

Monday, June 16
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Introduction to Literacy Unbound, Erick Gordon & Fawn Canady
12:00 Lunch
1:00 The Radical Imagination of Lauren Olamina in Parable of the Sower with Kim Hester-Williams
3:00 Virtual seminar with Lewis Hyde, author of Primer for Forgetting
4:40 Reinforcements (a routine for building community and acknowledging each other)

Tuesday, June 17 (Fieldwork, Credo High School) 
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Seminar, “The Literature of Hope” and Afrofuturism
12:00 Lunch (On Your Own)
1:00 Black Box Theater: “On the Road with Lauren Olamina”
3:15 Reinforcements
4:00 Building Reverence: Creating Space for Ceremony (in the Redwood Grove)
5:00 Back to SSU. End of programming for the day

Wednesday, June 18
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Documentary Theater: Learning the Traditions
10:00 Assembling the Assets: Documentary Theater in Action
10:45 Seminar on Sower with Kim
12:00 Lunch (On Your Own)
1:00 Exploding the Questions: A Flare/Focus Workshop
2:45 Literacy Unbound Workshop: The Urgency of Hope / Props and the Making of Meaning
5:00 End of programming for the day

Thursday, June 19
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Fieldwork: Depart for Armstrong Woods Redwood Forest
9:50 Ecocriticism, Ethnic Futurisms, and Ecofeminism
11:30 Into the Forest: Lauren’s Quest in Northern California
12:00 Lunch is provided at Armstrong Woods
1:00 Leave for Solar Punk Farm
1:45 The Solar Punk Manifesto and Farm Tour
4:00 Asset Building
5:00 Bus Ride to SSU
6:15 End of programming for the day

Friday, June 20
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Remixing the Public Domain with Troy Hicks (includes Library of Congress media resources and Public Domain)
11:15 Layering Assets, Literacy Unbound
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Soundscaping Workshop
3:00 Black Box Theater: Layering Voices
5:00 Program ends for the day

Saturday, June 21: AM Work on Assets and PM Open Time to Explore
Sunday, June 22: Open Time to Explore

Monday, June 23
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Dystopian Literature: Inspiring Action and Urgency with Dr. Allison Ford
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Combining Assets: Assembling the Script Part 1
3:00 Reinforcements
3:30 Program ends for the day

Tuesday, June 24
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Weaving Threads: Assembling the Script Part 2
10:00 Stitching the Story: Beginning Rehearsals
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Depart for the Wave Organ
2:30 Onsite at the Wave Organ: Art from the Ashes
4:30 Dinner On Your Own/Explore the SF Presidio
6:30 Depart for SSU

Wednesday, June 25
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Work time
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Rehearsals
5:00 Dinner on your own
7:00 An Evening in the Black Box

Thursday, June 26 (Curriculum Lab)
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Multimodal Workshop with Franz Kafka's “Fellowship”
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Breaking It Down: Deconstructing the Workshop
2:00 Curriculum Lab: Crafting Takeaway Workshops
5:00 Program ends for the day

Friday, June 27
8:30 Coffee and light refreshments
9:00 Poetics of Space Workshop with Erick
10:30 Messages to Future Ancestors with Fawn (Podcasting using John Greene’s Anthropocene Reviewed)
12:00 Lunch on your own
1:00 Departure for Sonoma Developmental Center
1:45 Onsite Literacy Unbound Workshop
4:30 Bus to SSU
5:00 Program ends for the day

Saturday, June 28: Checkout before noon

Post-Institute (Online): August 2025 3-4 days TBD