DC's Creative Advocacy Lab
We intersect culture, politics, & tech to build community power:
A collective based in Edgewood (Ward 5), DC.
Building healthy and joyful systems through
culture consciousness and civic mutual aid.
We’re discovering a
nourishing cultural solution of
political movement:
Equitism =
community ownership,
balancing systemic tensions,
infinite play,
& delicious food.
We’re asking questions:
What do you need?
What would you do if you were in charge?
How do we build alternative systems that balance tensions, center partnership, & nourish essential human needs?
Equity | Solidarity | Joy
Co-Directors
Sam
Bonar
Sam is the Chief Strategy Officer, of Delicious Democracy. He is a soulful advocate, myco-partner, bard advocate. comedic strategist, miscommunication facilitator, and systems tinkerer. He uses improvisation and infinite play to cut through the bullshit.
But what do we actually do?
Current Experiments
Community Power Platform
Our Ideas for Laws to Change the Game:
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Meet People's Essential Needs:
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Permanent Affordable Homeownership
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Healthy Food & Clean Water
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Community-Owned Infrastructure
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Community Wealth-Building
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Guaranteed Income for Care & Gig Work
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Solidarity Economy & Co-op Businesses
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Community First Response Safety Team
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Respect Nature - Rethink Waste
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Unified Community Transportation
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Mental and Holistic Family Healthcare
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Humanize Education and Bureaucracy
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Community Power and the VOICE Act
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A Transformative Justice 51st State
Civic Education & Culture
We work with communities to weave democracy in - beyond just voting.
Being in community should feel good.
Dancing with Power
We do cultural and playful "lobbying" for laws that transform the system itself. Playfulness is effective and legal in places of power (just don't call it "protesting").
Mushroom Gardens
We plant mushroom gardens that heal the soil, make connections, and transform waste into protein and vitamin rich food matter.
Respecting Nature, Rethinking Waste
Organizing around the things that most directly nourish us is one way to connect systemic change to our everyday experience. Carbon is just one of the many cycles and systems that we have fucked up in our quest to dominate nature. Talking about "climate change" is just beginning. Let's talk about our coming FOOD CRISIS.
Essential Needs & Mutual Aid
If we want to talk about "democracy", we have to connect it to the basics that the government should guarantee: clean water, healthy food, holistic healthcare, accessible transportation, green space, and human-centered education.
Delicious Summer
As part of the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), we’re training young Native Washingtonians in how to build trust, relationships, and community power by advocating creatively and knocking on neighbors’ doors in Ward 5.
Saying Hello
To shape change and culture, it starts by simply acknowledging someone else's humanity - face-to-face. Instead of telling folks what to think, we’re listening, educating about our platform, and connecting them to resources like mutual aid & rental assistance.
Showupia
A civic education and door knocking game (in development) for community power building and showing up to help neighbors in the real world. Available on the iPhone App Store, but it's not good yet! We're trying radical transparency and letting you in to our mess. Tell us what you think and make it your own!
Our Community
Power Platform
Meet People's Essential Needs:
Permanent/Deeply Affordable Equity and Homeownership
Healthy Food & Clean Water
Community-Owned Infrastructure
Community Wealth-Building
Guaranteed Income for Care & Gig Work
Solidarity Economy & Co-op Businesses
Community First Response Safety Team
Respect Nature - Rethink Waste
Unified Community Transportation
Mental and Holistic Family Healthcare
Humanize Education and Bureaucracy
Community Power and the VOICE Act
A Transformative Justice 51st State
Transforming
the System:
There's so much to be upset about or fight against.
We work on issues that envision an equitable future, build community strength and power, and address the root causes of BS:
corruption, inequity, supremacy, election integrity, the experience of voting, civic engagement and education, exploitation, data /tech platform power, and a structural lack of political creativity.
Solving wicked problems requires more than a direct assault on obvious symptoms. It requires dancing.
One of the few systemic changes that can transform the culture of elections, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a well-tested voting system where you are free to vote for who you really want. You can rank your choices instead of picking only one.
The people and communities of DC are second-class citizens without full control of our local money and laws. Yes, we're not all politicians in this culture-rich city - the rest of the country sends THEIR politicians to OUR city. Becoming a state is the beginning of deciding our own future.
Co-ops, tech equity, transformative justice... We're discovering a new economic and political system grounded in community ownership, balancing systemic tensions, and infinite play. Everyone hates capitalism and socialism these days - let's make something new, while learning from the old, to nourish our future.