For a decade, our Civic Paths research team at the University of Southern California has sought to increase civic engagement through discourses of popular culture. In this article, we detail the theory and methodology informing the practice we call the civic imagination, which we define as “the capacity to imagine alternatives to current cultural, social, political, or economic conditions” (Jenkins, Peters-Lazaro, & Shresthova, 2020). Through critical reading and collective world building practices, we have worked with groups ranging from churches to colleges to build solidarity and articulate visions of social justice. Here, we share our best practices with you.