Our Story

The Greenprint sets its roots in the soil of Georgetown, South Carolina, where its founder Jordyn Barber made her home. There, she was taught by her grandmother, a teacher in segregated schools, about Georgetown’s prominence due to its profitable rice fields, tilled by enslaved Africans. Inspired by her grandmother’s wisdom, Jordyn knew her mission in life was two-fold: to educate herself; and to reform society from exploiting people, to valuing their dignity.

Jordyn went on to college, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Media and Master of Fine Arts in Film and TV Production at University of Southern California. Still, her calling to change society remained at the forefront of her mind. Considering how an ideal life and community might operate, Jordyn solidified her ideas in a short film, as well as a book titled The Greenprint. Coincidentally, Green is the surname of Jordyn’s family members who transitioned from slave labor to freedom.

A write up about The Greenprint appeared in Medium and sparked an interest in Colleen McGregor, a former classmate with a background in immersive media producing and non-profit development. Jordyn and Colleen discovered they shared core values of how to make a sustainable future. They decided to collaborate and join forces in 2020 to bring The Greenprint into reality.

They did this by first building out a creative team to build the VR game experience, assembled a board of project advisors, and ultimately founded The Greenprint non-profit organization. Jordyn drew upon what she’d learned in school about game theory--whenever a person joins a game, the rules suddenly become real to them. Their team would build a virtual world that reflected the world they wished to see. As with game theory, if people could see a sustainable, equitable community, they would begin to understand it was achievable in the real world. Together, they would change the rules of the game.

Bringing The Greenprint into fruition wasn’t without it’s challenges. The duo applied for and were rejected by grants, and hit walls in developing their virtual world. The solution was to expand their community by bringing on board Alexandra Thomopoulos and Yara Feghali, an architect and coder, respectively. Additionally, they held virtual connection events, bringing guest speakers to educate and brainstorm with the community about a range of topics, including non-violent communication, sustainability, urban farming, etc.

Their connection sessions revealed the diversity of ideas about what constitutes an ideal society. Creative technologist Viviane El Kmati joined the team and furthered the idea that The Greenprint should be a collaborative effort. Rather than imposing their ideal world on others, The Greenprint could be a world-building game for anyone to use to design their vision for an empowering and affirming community.

With their new understanding of The Greenprint’s possibilities, they went on to win Artizen’s Femme Futures Grant and Artizen’s Black Reality Grant. The financial award and mentorship helped them create an early prototype of The Greenprint VR.

Their big vision will allow us all to play together and change the world.