This month: our vision for narrative and culture power-building
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Our New Narrative Innovators Lab
Many communications strategies tend to focus on the next campaign or policy fight. We take for granted that people already care, and we set out to construct messages to win the day – even if those messages might do more harm than good for what we want to achieve in the long run.
For
those of us who have run communications campaigns<[link removed]>, we know what it feels like when you are growing narrative and cultural power. You can feel momentum growing. You can hear the chorus expanding. You can see a-ha moments ripple across a room. And most importantly, you can see big ideas become common sense.
Building cultural and narrative power will help progressive victories to be bigger, faster to win, and more enduring. That’s why
we launched the new Narrative Innovators Lab<[link removed]> — to equip a class of amazing communicators, artists, and creatives with the relationships and skills to help design campaigns for the long run.
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A Bold Look: Our New Website
The
new TOA brand and website<[link removed]> is a visual manifestation of who we are and how we’re moving forward: by sharing story, influencing culture, building power, and achieving freedom for all. Together with Outright, our amazing creative agency, we’ve achieved a design that we think will spark joy, spur creativity, embolden inspiration, and ensure accessibility in digital spaces.
Go explore and enjoy<[link removed]> the streamlined user experience.
Read More<[link removed]>
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Discussion Guide: Birthing Justice
Women in the Room Productions’ feature-length documentary
Birthing Justice<[link removed]> will air nationwide on PBS, starting April 10. Grounded in courageous storytelling, the film spotlights the national crisis of Black maternal and infant mortality. Working with Executive Producer Denise Pines and law professor I. India Thusi, we published a
discussion guide<[link removed]> to prepare audiences for the film and inspire action.
Read More<[link removed]>
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April 2023 is Now Live!
This month includes the annual observance of Second Chance and Medicaid Awareness Months, Earth Day, and Lesbian Visibility Week, as well as key hooks in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dolores Huerta.
Visit our editorial calendar<[link removed]> for messaging tips on these upcoming media hooks.
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Behind-the-Scenes: Artists Chats at the NIL
Engaging creatives in co-designing narrative interventions improves the quality, scale, and vision of cultural strategies. To help the fellows spark ideas during the Narrative Innovators Lab, we enjoyed the honor of hosting the following
artists<[link removed]> and
cultural strategists<[link removed]> whose work embodies the role that storytelling plays in culture shift.
Charles DuVernay & Big Chief Tyrone “Pie” Stevenson: The Monogram Hunters are one of several Mardi Gras Indian tribes behind
Black Masking Indian Culture in New Orleans<[link removed]>. Through tapestries created from the suits they’ve worn, Charles and Big Chief Pie shared with us both the stories of joy and pain in their suits, and how place-based traditions of sewing and beading in Black and Native communities honors the deep history of New Orleans. View their art
online or in-person at GBA gallery<[link removed]> in Brooklyn!
Erika Soto Lamb: When it comes to the #PowerofPop to educate and activate, we’d say Erika is a pioneer in the field. The founding head of social impact strategy at Comedy Central, she now leads campaigns for MTV Entertainment Studios at Paramount Global. Erika also co-founded
Power the Polls<[link removed]> and is a steering committee member for
Vote Early Day<[link removed]>. Last week, she joined us for a “Communicators Cafecito” to share insights on the audience strategy behind Paramount Network’s docu-series featuring Yellowstone cast members and IRL leaders working on critical issues like stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Watch the episode “Protect Our Land” here<[link removed]>.
jackie sumell: An alum of TOA’s Creative Change Retreat, jackie’s innovative and impactful projects in art as social practice inspire us to rethink how we can approach thoughtful and strategic collaboration with critical communities. Through a 12-year collaboration with the late Herman Wallace, a Black Panther and revolutionary who was wrongfully convicted and spent over four decades in solitary confinement, jackie’s craft and activism led to the creation of the
“Solitary Gardens” project<[link removed]>. Our Fellows had a chance to experience an element of the project during a visit to MoMA PS1. If you’re in NY, you too can visit “
Freedom to Grow<[link removed]>” until April 3.
Image credits: Carolina Kroon Photography, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda
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