Good question, one we’ve been fielding a lot! Our choice of Xylophone for X was a little tongue in cheek- a nod to the fact that X is *always* for xylophone (since there are so few X words) and a gesture towards not taking ourselves too seriously. We were clear about wanting each letter to represent a positive concept, something we want in the world we’re struggling to create. This led us to reject some suggestions such as Xenophobia which, while being relevant to a radical social justice agenda, is something we’re striving to eliminate. Around the time we were working on the alphabet, one of the collective members coincidentally also heard a somewhat magical story from some professional percussionists about the xylophone’s connection to Chicago history, the city where the radicalphabet was born.
