Fancy Lanier-Duncan explores imagination, liberation and play in debut children’s book

Fancy Lanier-Duncan never set out to write a children’s book. Known in Minneapolis as a musician, creative and community builder, she sees herself less as someone who follows a plan and more as someone who follows creative flow, wherever it leads.

“I don’t think that I was ever like, ‘Oh, I just have to be a writer,’ and pursued it,” Fancy said. “I’ve always just been one of those creatives that whatever flows to me, I have to get it out and put it out in whatever capacity that looks like.”

That instinct eventually led to The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort, her debut children’s book, which arrived unexpectedly as a dream.

“I remember very vividly sitting in a room, and I had a piece of paper in front of me,” she said. “My son came running into this vision, into this dream that I had, and he told me that he wanted to build a fort. And I told him that I had to write down what all the steps were, and that we would follow that.”

When she woke up the next morning, the idea wouldn’t let go. She sat on the three-season porch of the home where her family was living at the time and began writing.

“It was almost like someone was talking to me in my ear,” she said. “I just started typing, and I think I came up with like 20 drafts in the first month. This story has been a work in progress for almost two years.”

The book centers on Sage, a child who dreams big, explores boldly, and works through challenges while trying to build a fort. Sage is intentionally written without a gender.

“It was really important that I had that as part of this particular story,” Fancy said. “I wanted all kids to be able to see themselves in Sage.”

While The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort is written for children, Fancy says it is just as much for the caregivers who read alongside them, especially when it comes to understanding the importance of play and imagination.

“When I think about Black children who eventually become Black adults, I think about how dreaming for us gets limited,” she said. “We think about survival first, before we think about dreaming. Oftentimes our dreams are stunted because of the systems that we’re living inside of — systems that we want to be liberated from. And our dreams are what liberate us from that.”

The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort  reminds readers that play and creativity are powerful acts.

“Dreaming doesn’t just happen when you’re sleeping,” Fancy said. “Dreaming happens when you’re playing. Dreaming happens when you’re being creative and you’re making things. Play and creativity are portals. They allow us to imagine something beyond what’s right in front of us.”

That philosophy echoes her broader work as a community and movement builder, including her leadership with The Legacy Building and Soul of the South Side Juneteenth festival which centers Black culture, community and liberation across multiple disciplines. In many ways, the book extends that work on a smaller, more intimate scale.

Musical, Poetic and Educational

Fancy and her husband Emmanuel “Envy” Duncan make up the hip hop duo iLLism. They also founded The Legacy Building in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Music plays a central role in the story’s voice and rhythm. A songwriter at her core, Fancy incorporates rhymes and poetic refrains throughout the book, using musical language to make lessons memorable.

“There’s a lot of rhyming that happens,” she said. “Sage meets different friends or guides along their way, and each of them provides a piece of wisdom. That’s actually why the name Sage was chosen: Sage means wisdom.”

One guide, a bee, reminds Sage to slow down: “Bit by bit, take things slow, time in love help things grow.”

The book also includes back matter designed to help children identify and name their feelings, an intentional choice shaped by Fancy’s experience as a parent.

“I had my first child when I was 17, and now I have a five-year-old well into my 30s,” she said. “The way that I’m equipped now as a human being has made a world of a difference in recognizing that I need to raise our little Black boy with tools that help him understand himself.”

Children, she said, need guidance in navigating emotion. “He’s five years old living on this crazy planet,” she said. “Kids don’t have those tools yet. They need help identifying what they’re feeling so they can move through it and not just run away from it.”

The story also weaves in social-emotional learning (SEL) practices, including breathing and self-regulation techniques, offering children tangible ways to ground themselves and problem-solve creatively.

Fancy hopes The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort is just the beginning. She envisions Sage’s journey expanding into future books and, eventually, related workbooks and creative tools for caregivers, organizers, and community leaders.

“At the foundation, it will always be about our dreams,” she said. “And about the power and the liberation that lives inside of dreaming.”

The book is currently in production, with release details coming soon. While Fancy has spoken with local publishers and literary agents, she says she’s committed to releasing the book no matter what.

“I don’t necessarily have a whole bunch of plans,” she said. “Except that I know I want the story out and it will come out either way.”

To support the project or learn more, visit FancyTheCreator.com and join the waitlist for The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort.