This month: join the song challenge, plus new culture corner watchlist recommendations

ICYMI: Forward Together Song Challenge 

The Poor People’s Campaign has created a variety of avenues for advocates, activists, and artists to support organizing in the lead up to the Moral March on Washington on June 18. One of the ways you can help turnout is through the Forward Together Song Challenge, an invitation to choirs, musicians, and all those who love music to share their own renditions of movement songs to help spread the word and build the movement. It’s not too late to submit your song for June!

Next month’s song challenge features hip hop artists and dancers remixing “New Unsettling Force.” Visit the song challenge toolkit for guidance on how to participate and submit your video. You don’t have to attend the Moral March on Washington to support the song challenge. Members of our staff will join the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington D.C. We hope to see you there!

What We're Watching: Feat. Julie & Sughey

If you’re like us and experiencing Abbott Elementary withdrawals, we’ve got you covered. This month, we’re featuring two TOA staff recommendations for sitcom lovers and theater-goers.  

Julie Fisher-Rowe, our Director of Narrative and Engagement, recommends checking out Killing It on NBC’s Peacock. This new offering, starring Craig Robinson and Claudia O’Doherty, examines the absurdities of hustle culture, our gig economy, and the widening economic inequality that spurs both on.  

While doing so, it explores and explodes many of the myths that prevailing narratives tell us about economic opportunity: that hard work alone will get you ahead, that wealth is the ultimate goal and the wealthy have all the answers, while also alluding to the roles that race, class, and immigration status play. For more on pop culture portrayals of economic inequality, see our Power of Pop: What TV Gets Wrong About Getting By report. 

We’re also fans of A24’s dystopian adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once. Sughey Ramírez, our Cultural Network Strategist, saw it in theaters this past weekend. Starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu — loved her in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — the film is a welcome nod to the importance of expanding Asian-American representation as we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  

What really stuck with Sughey after the film is that life is a collection of little moments or opportunities to choose joy and kindness, unapologetically. Doing so is always courageous and powerful and worth protecting. It reminds us of Joy to the Polls and how creative interventions can center joy as a mobilizing force. 

Keep an eye out for the Culture Corner in future newsletters, where we’ll recap or preview must-see shows, films, art exhibits, or events at the intersection of narrative change and cultural strategy. 

Image credits: Poor People's Campaign, Jamila Hammami, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda, The Opportunity Agenda

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