Surviving Together

Village Recap & New Name Reveal

A colorful quilt with squares containing handwritten text hangs from from a string. Behind the quilt are autumn trees, bushes, a garden, and a high tunnel.

Two sets of hands pin colorful squares to a board that contains a quilt in the making. The quilt squares contain text and have been cut in half. The hands are repairing the quilt.

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On Sept. 26, 2026, Jacob and Una — two accidental time travelers from the year 2175 — gathered in the woods of Vermont with their ancient ancestors to explore what it means to survive together, as a village.

The time travelers shared stories of a future of abundance, reciprocity, and joy — a future made possible by the commitment the ancestors made to generations they would never get the chance the meet.

Except here they were, meeting and collaborating! All thanks to a wormhole by Journey’s End in Johnson, Vermont.

Colorful signs welcoming visitors to Bread & Roses Village hang on a piece of weathered plywood. Behind the signs is a table draped in a beautiful red tablecloth with a blue donation box and vase filled with wildflowers.

Crates hold fresh produce — kale, squash, apples, chili peppers, cherry tomatoes, and more

Several people sitting at a table under an outdoor tent feasting on pozole, rice, and beans. Behind them are more people standing, talking, and eating, surrounded by fall foliage. People's faces have been covered in smiley face emojis for privacy.

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As is done in the future and was done in the past, they celebrated the Harvest Moon and the Autumn Equinox by sharing the abundance and feasting together.

An animated GIF shows a puppet version of Jacob handing a bag of groceries to a puppet version of Luka Jr. — *Luka Jr. receives a mutual aid grocery delivery in the year 2175*

As in future and in past, they gathered around for a puppet show. The show told the story of how this inter-temporal collaboration came to be. A baby deer in the year 2175 stumbled in front of a mutual aid grocery truck, which swerved into a wormhole, which sucked these accidental time travelers back to the year 2025. Here, they met the ancestors they always hear stories about — ordinary people who came together in urgent times to build a better world.

An animated GIF of the Jacob & Una puppets in their grocery truck, swerving to avoid hitting a deer, and then getting sucked into a wormhole — *Swerving to avoid a baby deer leads to a collision with a wormhole and time travel back to the year 2025!*

As in future and in past, they played a game. Their goal was to reassemble a future heirloom — a quilt representing their commitment to surviving together. The quilt had been cut into pieces by a tech oligarch trying to keep people separate from one another, connecting only through screens. “Survive?” he scoffed. “I’d rather THRIVE. Online. Using AI.”

Some of his venture capital-backed schemes included:

Plnktn: Providing wifi access to offshore oil rigs using a whale-based maritime network
Drghtlss: A space for farmers to boost yields with digital crops
Phit: A subscription based service that sends you 30 outfits a month, made of a revolutionary polymer called Triple Plastic™. Wear each outfit one time and at the end of the day, take a shower fully clothed, dissolving the outfit completely into the ground water
3 Mile AIsland: The first ever AI-driven nuclear reactor, producing exactly (well, almost) as much energy as is needed to power the AI data center at the heart of the operation

A hand holds a pink card open, along with half of a quilt square. The quilt square reads "We have a responsibility to each other to" and the card contains discussion questions: Does this statement ring true for you? Do you disagree with this statement?

The villagers were given scraps of the quilt, and worked to find their matching halves while the tech bro attempted to sell them on his apps. They defended their connection with one another by clapping at the tech bro in rhythmic formation.

Listen to the villagers moving into formation (38sec):

Una’s voice: What we’re gonna do is — we have to get into unison. We have to, like, move in coordination. So what we’re gonna do is we’re going to get into some rhythm, to get rid of Donovan. So in your pairs, when he comes up to you, one person is going to start a rhythm (Una claps), and then you’re both going to do it together (Una & Jacob clap, Donovan groans in disgust), and then, you can all do it with us to practice, ready to practice? (Donovan interjects: “What is this, Coachella?” Many hands clap) See how he hates it? (Group laughs)

The tech oligarchy hates it when the people are connected, organized and moving in coordination.

Each square of the quilt contained a statement relating to a commitment to surviving together. The villagers reassembled the squares and talked about what these statements meant — and did not mean — to them. They then worked to protect their freshly restored future heirloom.

Three villagers clapping at the tech oligarch to prevent him from "disrupting" their precious quilt. People's faces have been covered in smiley face emojis for privacy.

Two sets of hands holding two halves of quilt square. Together, the square reads "We cannot not be together. Each one of us is insufficient and indispensable to what needs to be done — Vanessa Machado de Oliveira"

Two people pinning their reassembled quilt square to the quilt board. Their faces have been covered in smiley face emojis for privacy.

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With the quilt restored and the tech oligarch in retreat, the people could enjoy the various stations in their little village. They picked up free produce, flowers, and canned goods from the grocery swap area, helped plan future harvests, painted a banner together, and identified what they needed — and already had — in order to survive together.

Colorful cards have been pinned to the side of a weathered wooden structure. On the left, a poster reads "What do we need to survive together?" Under this are 10 cards that people have written their ideas on, including "Patience" and "Grocery delivery." The poster on the right reads "What do we already have?" and 5 cards have been pinned under it, including "More hugs!" and "Communication with the ancestors"

Two people are looking at paintings that hold visions of future structures and farm scaping at Kindred CRAFT, the location of the event.

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As in future and in past, they ended the night as the Harvest Moon rose with a ceremony of gratitude to Pachamama, Mother Earth. They learned that this ceremony came to them with generosity from Bolivia, and was adapted to the plants, land, and season here in this part of N’dakinna, traditional homelands of the Abenaki (colonially known as Vermont, New Hampshire, western Maine, northern Massachusetts, and southern Quebec).

With blessings from a future of abundance,

Jacob & Una

An ofrenda (offering) containing pine boughs, apple slices, wildflowers, marigolds, seeds, spices, smudges, and other precious items burns in a beautiful bonfire.

With deep gratitude to:

Kindred CRAFT, for hosting us
Puppet Kabob, for puppetry support
NAS Creative Community Fellows program, for financial and spiritual support
Our beloved community, for showing up in all the ways you always do

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Village Recap & New Name Reveal

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