Dispatches from 2120

Dear fellow time travelers,

If you’ve just opened a Dispatches from 2120 newsletter, you may very well be asking yourself, “what is this? and also, “why did they make this?”

First, 2020 is such an ominous date that it can’t help but evoke an undefined sci-fi future. Also, there’s this hard-to-escape feeling that history is forming around us right now. Everyone’s focused (rightly, in many cases) on what will happen in the next year, or the next ten years. But what about 100 years from now?

We love sci-fi, and speculative fiction, and occasionally it’s set here in DC, but few are actually interested in writing about what living here will be like in the future. So this series tries to do that: we’re taking a big swing and suggesting a version of what DC might be like in the year 2120.

Please note that I, the author, am not predicting that this scenario will actually be the future, or that it should be — this is an extrapolation of our current moment from my own perspective. This 2120 is not fully optimistic or cynical. Please let that sink in, and let me warn/apologize up front: reading this, you may become frustrated that things have not turned out as you would have hoped.

But looking back at history, and our own lived experiences, doesn’t that tend to happen? Both wonderful events and terrible events happen, some of which you can expect and others you can’t. Looking back at 1920, some of the ideas just coming into vogue have become essential since, like women being able to vote. Others are still with us, but not in the same way that they were then, like jazz. Still other, vastly important parts of our contemporary circumstances would have been inconceivable to people living a century ago.

How will our descendants regard this moment? How will the decisions we’re making now shape their future?

The 730DC newsletter is a fantastic medium to explore the future because it’s grounded in DC’s systemic issues but is also interested in the day-to-day lives of the people who live here.

This is a six week exploration of one possible version of DC’s future, fully informed by what’s happening here right now. In Dispatches from 2120, you’ll see people still reckoning with climate change, housing, transportation, racism, and so many of the things that are important to us now in 2020. But there’s a lot more than that, and I can’t wait for you to read it, and to see it in comic form.

And importantly, we want to add your perspective too. If any part of this project intrigues you, or moves you to write, draw, sing, paint, or anything really, please get in touch. We want to incorporate as many of your contributions as possible throughout the six weeks.

Stay tuned,

Josh Kramer