Micah M. White

In a silent moment a blackspot sprouted as a scribble on the wall - the remainder of a black crayon circling, blotting out what lay beneath. As pure possibility, the blackspot grew through negation, composting decaying culture to fertilize seedlings of renewal Taking an ad bloated with pestilential desires, swirling its mark until nothing remains but tilled field, the blackspot prepares the fecund ground, dark with becoming, for our new beginning.

The blackspot is a challenge to which the most powerful tremble in response It signals an ongoing mutiny against consumerism But our rebellion is of a different kind, where not only the captain of the vessel is discharged but also the course and even the maps are destroyed We are not sailing for a distant shore, nor seeking the middle passage Instead, our destination is here, where we stand.

The blackspot points us toward an alternative present, a viable vision for transforming our communities into lush forests of homegrown culture, unhomogenized by corporate toxins.

It remained a potentiality - waiting for necessity to pollinate its delicate flowers until, weathering storms of cynicism and resignation, the black~ spot bore fruit a tenacious people inspired, prepared to remake the world emerged. Their initial offering, a simple sneaker destined to unswoosh souls by kicking corporate ass, was a fast success But the shoe was mere beginning, a taste of the envisioned world to come castrated capitalism, blackspotted. From a scribble on the wall to the incubator of a people, the blackspot's design unfolds with time - remaining the catalysis of cultural rebirth.

Micah M. White is a Binghamton, New York-based writer and activist, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Media and Communications at the European Graduate School. This article originally appeared in Adbusters #80