This month: our vision for narrative and culture power-building

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, 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 — to equip a class of amazing communicators, artists, and creatives with the relationships and skills to help design campaigns for the long run.

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 for messaging tips on these upcoming media hooks.

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 and cultural strategists 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. 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 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 and is a steering committee member for Vote Early Day. 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.

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. 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” until April 3.

Image credits: Carolina Kroon Photography, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda

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