Fütchi Perf

Czap presents a loving, optimistic look at the future through the lens of a near-utopian Cleveland and a brave new type of popular culture. The slim volume offers up a series of vignettes, each zeroing in on a part of Czap’s world, in which the massively influential think tank Kid Mind links youth of all demographics together in an egalitarian melting pot of music, language, and communal growth. Czap’s Cleveland has plenty of infrastructure and arts funding; thriving, colorful neighborhoods; accessible local elections. Making all this work requires a bit of future-tech handwaving, but plausibility isn’t what Czap is going for—it’s the idea of a different kind of world, expressionistically rendered in soft curves and luminous, two-toned hues. With introspective ruminations on self-actualization and the beauty of radical love, Czap begs the reader to imagine another kind of existence in which capitalist power structures have given way to something more emotionally and tangibly just. The final line is an exhortation: “Get here.” One can only hope. (Oct.)