“Tomorrow Is. . .” was written after Lorraine O’ Grady’s “Art Is. . .” performance piece from 1983, where sheheld gold frames up to the audience at Harlem’s African-American Day Parade. This performance felt antagonistic to white supremacist systems of beauty and aesthetic, and I was moved by the Afrofuturistic nature of this project. For me, it was a hopeful endeavor to demand Black folks be witnessed and witness themselves as something worth preserving, worth adorning, worth celebrating. The black background and gold frame of the poem is a direct reference to her piece, and I wanted to further her questions by asking, “what do we as artists and architects of our own futures imagine it to be? What do we have now that we hope to preserve?” In this poem, I choose to champion neighbors, community care and the actions necessary to keep us alive and joyous.