The Future We Demand(ed)

King Meulens
→BARCH 28 + BAAD 2026

Who holds institutional memory? And who makes sure it stays more than a memory? The Black Artists and Designers collective (BAAD) has been reflecting on the work of the student organizers before us. In trying to form our own coalition today, we look to the long lineage of student resistance before us: their protests, their demands, their victories. We’ve gathered an abridged timeline of Black student resistance at RISD, a history of what ought to be, and we want to share it with you; there is plenty more to be found in the Fleet Library’s archives. Throughout this year, we’ve been screen printing these memories onto T-shirts, making them a part of the everyday lives of current students. As student organizers, we are deeply passionate about keeping institutional memory alive.

Chapter 1: We Demand

In 1970, a student movement pushed for greater financial equity at RISD. Students made demands such as “an increase in scholarships and a tuition freeze for four years” and “30 full-ride scholarships to students in Rhode Island.” They drew connections between class-based discrimination within RISD’s admissions system and racial discrimination experienced by admitted students. They published the We Demand manifesto and the Who Runs RISD? and Who Goes to RISD? articles in the R.I.S.D. student newspaper. One passage from Who Goes to RISD? reads as follows:

“Last year, an attempt was made to open RISD to students of other ethnic and economic backgrounds. The five black students who were enrolled here at the time drew up a list of demands concerning recruitment of black students and faculty, the institution of courses in black culture, and improvement of the school environment … The administration responded favourably to these demands, and a program was set up.”

Images accessed on RISD Digital Commons.

Chapter 2: Not Your Token

On April 6, 2016, hundreds of students of color, students with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ students, and allies from the RISD and Providence communities gathered in Market Square to demand that administrators take action to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment on campus.

Organized by Olivia Stephens (’17 IL) and other members of BAAD, the Not Your Token protest began with passionate words from three student leaders, followed by an open invitation for other members of marginalized communities to come forward to speak. In the same year, alumna Eloise Sherrid produced The Room of Silence, an interview-style documentary that raised urgent questions about race, identity, and marginalization at RISD.

Images accessed on RISD Digital Commons.

Chapter 3: Inheritance

By 2020, Not Your Token’s influence had widened, most prominently through the RISD Anti-Racism Coalition. The demands of BIPOC students spawned concrete, measurable changes. As a direct result of their protests, RISD hired new faculty and staff specializing in race and decolonization, continued to de-Westernize our curriculum, and increased student and faculty diversity. We find this to be a particularly exciting moment filled with new initiatives that have since become familiar presences in our RISD experience: the launch of the Black Biennial, the creation of the First-Generation College Student Pre-Orientation Program (FGC POP), and the renewal of the Ewing Multicultural Center.

But we are far from finished.

Reflecting on the powerful activism of those who came before us, we unearth a deep sense of purpose: to take hold of the opportunities you are given today. Today, we see BAAD, Mango Street, RSJP (RISD Students for Justice in Palestine), Black Star Journal, NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architects), and many more continuing these efforts. Caught in a tapestry of time and ever-shifting changes, it takes a strong tribe to carry on. We are and always have been that beautiful, energetic, creative, passionate, disciplined, and intelligent tribe!

Chapter 4: Construction

In 2025, BAAD held our first merch-making event. We wanted to bring people together and build a deeper connection among members. We wanted to transform a garment and imbue new life into it through screen printing. Clothes are extended skin, an abstract enclosure between body and environment. When ink is added to a garment, stories are embedded within the material, the vessel, but most importantly the soul. We think of Audre Lorde’s famous lines:

For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” —Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”

Images courtesy of BAAD

Screen printing, art, and design are not a luxury, they are integral to our existence.

Reanimating these demands and presenting them to the world is protest.

Standing proud together, we nurture the seeds of hope in tomorrow. Discussions, actions, education, and solidarity follow.

Our dreams and aspirations are made material, our demands transcend time, and the story will continue.

Warmth and Abundance,
King Meulens

BAAD wants you to keep an eye out for future merch. ;)