Community Change’s fourth issue features submissions that speak to the what, why, and how of transmission and transition in community change, particularly in light of significant events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Reflections on a Cross-Border Collaborative Research Effort During COVID-19” analyzes a scholarly collaboration focused on individual and collective agency, public health, the arts, and media representations in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas through the COVID-19 pandemic. Political scientist Molly Todd and her co-authors reflect on sharing information across borders, focusing on the methodology of their team-based, collaborative work and adaptations made due to the pandemic. Through seven prompts, the research team members discuss their shared goals and labors, questions of voice and power relative to access to resources and information, as well as relationships between the Global North and South, academic institutions and community organizations, and formal and informal change agents. Todd et al. hope the chronicled efforts “may provide insight to other interdisciplinary researchers on how to conduct team-based research that seeks to navigate language-based, theoretical, and cultural differences in an intentional way.”

In her vibrant article, “Sustaining Colorful Technologies of Resistance and Joy in T&T Carnival,” artist-scholar Leslie Foncette blends history, cultural studies, Black Feminism, and photographs she has taken to decode and illustrate the subversive power of Carnival in her native Trinidad & Tobago. Foncette considers the impacts of COVID-19 on Black people and people of color compared to the international slave trade, and analyzes some of Carnival’s archetypes to illustrate historical disparities and contemporary parallels. Archetypes such as the baby doll, jab molassie, and fancy sailor serve as living archives of Black Trinbagonians’ sustained resistance against gender-based violence, economic exploitation, and the eradication of West African religious traditions. But they aren’t merely backward-looking; these figures are embedded in a maximalist cultural celebration that looks ahead, resolutely affirming a future of flourishing for Black people everywhere. Foncette’s analysis illuminates covert transmissions in Carnival, and compels the reader to consider how artistic and cultural practices propel and reshape the transmission of knowledge, stories, and movements across generations.

Further publications on transmission and transition in community change are forthcoming, so we encourage you to revisit the journal. We hope that you find the contributions in this issue to be thought-provoking and inspiring as you advance your work in community change.