In 2021, Seeda School founder Ayana Zaire Cotton developed and self-published Cykofa: The Seeda Origin Story, an experimental speculative fiction short story told through the journal entries of a non-binary biotechnologist named Seeda and the found data within an ancient, 2,600+ year-old bald cypress tree named Cy. In accordance with Akan wisdom, if the “san” in “sankofa” means to “return,” the “ko” means to “go,” and the “fa” means to look, seek, and take, then by replacing the “san” with “cy,” short for cypress tree, Ayana is inviting us into a world where we return to our ecosystems and reimagine how we inhabit land and time¹.

Over the past decade Ayana's worldbuilding practice has consisted of creating print publications showcasing the art and politics of Chocolate City, launching a workwear fashion line as a meditation on black feminist labor, teaching software engineering to hundreds of students, tending to an ecosystem of art practice ranging from ceramics and film photography to abstract painting and performance and later, she seeded a school. Today, her focus is on supporting other black feminist worldbuilders inside the daily practices and creative ceremonies that allow them to root in their desires and ease.

CITATION 

1. ^{"The question ‘what does it mean to exist at the end of the world?’ is shared. We grapple with it in geo-specific places, as sentient creatures on Earth, with varied beliefs about inhabiting land and time." — Saidiya Hartman in conversation with Sarah Jilani for “The Interview: Saidiya Hartman” published by ArtReview on October 8th, 2025}