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an immersive atlas of justice, memory and possibility

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what if justice wasn’t a dream but a direction?

The Hope Gap XR builds upon existing research and public discourse across the U.S. reparations movement, as well as scholarship in psychology, education, economics, and public health worldwide. These bodies of work inform the experience, translating data and story into an immersive cultural form that invites reflection, dialogue, and collective imagination.

For more on the project’s intellectual lineage, see our recommended Resources.

As a work in progress, we build on experiences as support becomes available. We invite you to support efforts to protect our collective imagination.

meet the team

The Hope Gap XR is a civic infrastructure platform designed to restore belief in achievable futures.

Operating across geographies and issue areas, mixed-modal experiences integrate immersive storytelling, somatic practices and research-based evaluation to strengthen collective agency as a durable public resource, rather than a fleeting emotional stage.

The platform is grounded in a core theory: our capacity to imagine just futures is constrained not by a lack of empathy, but by the architectures of information—who controls it, how it circulates, and whose stories are deemed credible. When histories are rendered invisible, inaccessible, or illegible, imagination narrows.

We claim expansion.

A large, decorative archway with vibrant orange, black, and green tribal patterns stands in a desert landscape with mountains in the background and a blue sky with scattered clouds.
Colorful illuminated depiction of Earth showing continents and oceans against a black background.
Man with beard wearing a white shirt and a virtual reality headset in a room with other people, some also wearing VR headsets, and a woman sitting on a chair in the background.
An elderly woman in white clothing and sunglasses is smiling while floating against a black background with colorful confetti surrounding her.
A woman wearing a floral dress and a virtual reality headset is interacting with a virtual environment, raising one hand and looking ahead.
our approach

“isn’t the foundation of activism faith in what could be?"

- anana curtis

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People participating in a virtual reality experience in a room, seated in a circle, wearing VR headsets.
A man with gray, curly hair and a beard wearing a dark blue shirt with white dots, is adjusting a white virtual reality headset labeled Atlantic Fellowships, while holding it with both hands.
Three women wearing virtual reality headsets sitting in a room with a cork wall decorated with whiteboards. They are engaged in a virtual experience, with the woman in the center and the right holding their hands up, showing gestures.
Group of people sitting in a classroom or workshop, wearing virtual reality headsets, with a corkboard and posters on the wall behind them.

the hope gap xr premieres in oxford, uk

In July 2025, The Hope Gap XR work-in-progress premiered during the Atlantic Institute’s Global Convening, held at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. This experience tested concepts of immersion as empathy, storytelling at scale, and embodiment of hope.

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A collage with a black and white photo of a group of people sitting on benches in front of houses, a map, a businesswoman with jewelry, and the words 'Reparations: The US town paying its black residents.' There is a QR code and a note about reparations as a solution to economic disparity.
black sand texture
An informational poster about 'Windows of Opportunity,' a mobile augmented reality installation exploring reparative justice, including event details for May 1-2 in Los Angeles, and a call for supporting donations.
A woman speaking at a podium with a microphone during a presentation at an event titled 'RIOT T' organized by Black Future Newstand. The background features banners from USC Annenberg and Free Press.

“Windows of Opportunity” is a mobile phone-powered, augmented reality (AR) experience inspired by Linda Bilmes and Cornell William Brooks’ research on “Normalizing Reparations.” Set to a soundscape of policies that set precedents for reparations, the experience visualizes key symbols within Evanston, Illinois’ reparations movement — the first municipally-funded reparations policy in the United States.

proof of concept: windows of opportunity

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currents of repair, channels of progress

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Colorful artistic representation of Earth with exaggerated continents and textured surface, set against a black background.
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