Radical Future(s) Fest 💛 Future(s) Assembly
Monday, October 6th, 2025 • 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Evolve Collaborative • Doors at 5:30 PM
What happens when we treat design as a public work — open, collaborative, and experimental? The first-ever Future(s) Assembly mixes design sprint energy with a science-fair showcase, putting futures thinking at center stage.
The evening will feature lightning talks and interactive “Future(s) Stations” hosted by local designers, strategists, and community organizers. From prototypes to experiments, you’ll encounter work-in-progress ideas that test how we might design for futures that are more just, joyful, and community-rooted.
Why Attend
See emerging cross-disciplinary projects spanning a range of design, policy, and community-centered outcomes
Engage with creatives to learn about their process, challenges, and vision for the future(s)
Connect with fellow participants curious about cultural and civic possibilities
Experience imagination as a civic practice in a creative community
Who It’s For
Designers, artists, and changemakers exploring experimental practices
Civic leaders and community organizers seeking new frameworks
Anyone interested in the intersection of imagination, design, and systems change
Featured Future(s) Stations
What’s Next for Asian American Town Presented by Tom Sollitt
Asian American Town is a community-based project connecting local Asian American changemakers in Portland, with the long-term goal of creating cross-functional spaces nationwide. Learn about this ground-roots effort and what comes next.
Populating the People's Graphic Design Archive Presented by Briar Levit, Co-director
The People's Graphic Design Archive is a crowd-sourced virtual archive expanding, diversifying, and preserving graphic design history. Discover how to use this dynamic resource and how contributions today shape tomorrow’s design futures.Volumes Design Library Presented by Michael Ellsworth
Volumes Design Library is a living library connecting people and design. What resources do designers need to thrive? Share your input and feedback about supporting what’s needed support your work and practice.Why Baby Bonds? Presented by Mary Li and JooyoungOh, StudioYellow
Baby Bonds are an innovative tool to address the racial wealth gap in one generation. Explore updates on this cross-sector local initiative and learn more about the national movement. Get a peak at what’s happening at “Baby Bonds: A Path Toward Prosperity for Future Generations” (ACLU, 2023) and “Baby Bonds: A Step Toward Racial and Economic Equity” (Economic Opportunity Institute, 2024).LoyLoy Presented by Dr. Mrinalini Tankha, Design Anthropologist
Loy Loy is an innovative savings board game that teaches financial literacy in an immersive group environment. Play and reflect on how sharing economies in developing markets can inform community-centered financial models here at home.
Part of Radical Future(s) Fest
Future(s) Assembly kicks off the three-day Radical Future(s) Fest (Oct 6–8) and Narrative Design Miniseries (Oct 18-20) during 2025 Portland Design Month.
Spaces, Systems & Shared Futures (a multi-disciplinary panel on Oct 7)
Civic Futures Remix (a design jam focused on the future of municipal grocery stores on Oct 8)
Story in Motion (table reads of an in-progress performance on Oct 18 and Oct 19th)
Narrative Design Lab (an hands-on workshop on Oct 19)
Imagining Otherwise (a multi-disciplinary panel on Oct 20)
Future(S) Assembly Presenters
Mrinalini Tankha
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Portland State University
Mrinalini Tankha is Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She received her PhD in anthropology from Brandeis University and BA in economics and MA in sociology from the University of Delhi, India. She is an economic and design anthropologist with research interests in money, technology, and international development. Dr. Tankha looks at the effects of financial crises and economic exclusion on the everyday lives of communities in Cuba, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Her work is historically informed and shows how people craft new forms of value and belonging in the face of economic instability. Dr. Tankha is currently leading a project on the uses of cryptocurrency in Cuba. She is also interested in how ethnography can be used for designing better services and systems to combat socioeconomic disparities and injustice. To that end, she is co-designer of Loy Loy: The Savings Game, a financial education board game.
Tom Sollitt
Brand Strategist and Changemaker, Asian American Town
Tom Sollitt is a creative strategist and the main leader behind Asian American Town. His primary focus is brand development and strategy through immersive research. He organizes, produces events, and actively participates within communities and discovers authentic insights. He truly believe you cannot provide meaningful consultation unless you have boots on the ground.
Jooyoung Oh (She/They)
StudioYellow
Jooyoung co-founded StudioYellow, a Social Design consulting group that challenges systemic injustice by taking action rooted in Revolutionary Love. Jooyoung has over 20 years of experience in design thinking, research, and strategy. Before kicking off StudioYellow, she worked with Multnomah Idea Lab, combining her passion for systemic change and racial justice work with her design expertise. She frequently teaches equity-centered design approaches and community engagement.
As a founder of Mugwort Counselling, Jooyoung offers conflict facilitation for individuals, families, and organizations. Healing history is her life's work, which she engages in through dance and writing practice using her other name Miro.
Mary Li (she/my name)
Multnomah County
Mary’s professional experiences include 34 years of service at Multnomah County delivering training, facilitation, coaching, and consulting within and across County organizations to groups and individuals through a variety of learning and skill building learning experiences and methods; as well as extensive experience with and service to the non-profit sector - domestic and sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, general social justice organizing efforts, culturally specific community development and support. She is a proud Asian American woman working locally, regionally, and nationally within Asian American Indigenous Pacific Island communities, and in allyship with communities of the global majority to survive and thrive.
Michael EllswortH
Co-Founder, Civilization
Michael is a designer and civic strategist whose work explores the power of design to drive collective change. As co-founder of the creative agency Civilization, he collaborates with mission-driven organizations to create campaigns, spaces, and systems that educate, engage, and inspire. His practice emphasizes cultural stewardship, clarity, and impact.
Briar Levit
Design Educator, Art Director and Graphic Designer
Briar Levit is a Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University. Levit’s feature-length documentary, Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production, which follows design production from manual to digital methods, established an obsession with design history—particularly aspects not in the canon. She currently collaborates with Louise Sandhaus, Brockett Horne, and Morgan Searcy
on The People’s Graphic Design Archive. She recently edited a book of essays for Princeton Architectural Press called Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History.
Panel Host & organizer
erin stevanus (she/her)
erin is an artist, strategist, and social entrepreneur committed to unlocking the potential of complex systems through foresight and speculative thinking. She runs a design futures studio, collaborating with leaders across the private, public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors to bring to life not-too-distant futures. As the founder of an innovation platform, she support changemakers in design thinking and social entrepreneurship. In her creative practice, erin writes, composes, and performs works exploring speculative futures and the mindsets needed to navigate them. You can also find her facilitating deep listening experiences and crafting live digital soundscapes through the sonic sound lab project, which invites curiosity, exploration, and rest.
