Understanding CMS Systems

Reclaiming the Web: CMS Systems as Tools for Liberation

You don’t need to know how to code to build something that changes the game. Most of the internet runs on CMS — Content Management Systems. That includes Beyoncé’s site and those underground Queer zines out of South Africa. From Webflow to WordPress, Notion to Ghost, these platforms aren’t just websites — they’re power tools. Think of them like 21st-century printing presses, but smarter, faster, AI-powered, and sitting in your pocket. Most people hear “CMS” and think it’s some tech bro thing. At Pillar, we hear “CMS” and think: organize your people, scale your truth, automate your movement — all from your phone.

For the global majority — Black, Brown, Indigenous, Queer, Neurodiverse, New Migrant, Female, Differently Abled — CMS is how we skip gatekeepers. These tools let us build systems that reflect our values, our stories, and our solutions. Want to build a fan-travel site for disabled superfans? A dynamic archive of Afro-futurist art? An AI-powered curriculum that teaches land sovereignty and climate resilience? You can. CMS gives us the power to make digital spaces move — auto-sorting directories, living archives, newsletters that write themselves. No code. No permission slips. Just vision, and willingness to try.

Now, flip the metaphor. CMS isn’t just tech. It’s a warehouse. It’s a backpack. It’s a sacred container you build yourself. Every post, page, image, or idea you add? That’s inventory. That’s memory. That’s magic. And the better your system — the clearer your structure — the faster you can get that magic into the hands of the people who need it. A good CMS setup is how you turn your phone into a mobile supply chain for truth. One that moves fluidly across cities, continents, and time zones. It’s not just publishing — it’s distribution. It’s infrastructure. It’s soul logistics.

So don’t think of CMS as building a website. Think of it as designing a circulation system for knowledge, language, and power. Your CMS should feed people. Speak to people. Adapt to people. With AI in the mix, we’re not just making pages — we’re building ecosystems. Imagine your site automatically assembling lesson plans, remixing resources, or routing submissions to different community hubs. When your CMS is sharp, your community doesn’t just visit your space — they live in it.

And here's the beautiful part: you can start today. From your phone.

• Easy Tech → Notion: It’s clean, free, and lets you build public databases, internal libraries, and linkable collections. It’s your backpack — organized, infinite, portable.
• No Frills, Scales Fast → Google Sheets + Google Sites: Your brain + your stage. Input your data in Sheets, and Sites makes it live and mobile-friendly. Clean. Fast. Already in your Google Drive.
• Fancy Feels → Tally.so + Zapier: Make slick submission forms. Connect them to Notion or Sheets using Zapier. Boom — you’ve got a living, breathing system that updates itself.

At Pillar, we build with the same mix. Webflow for beauty. Google Sheets for speed. Airtable for flexibility. ChatGPT for flow. It’s magic — but it's magic built from systems. And now we’re building new and better tools so you can share in the magic with us (easily on the go). Let’s go. Let’s build.