The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) builds power nationally for domestic workers, including nannies, housecleaners, and home healthcare workers. NDWA organizes low-wage workers to improve their living and working conditions; win respect and justice from employers and government; challenge racism and sexism that has led...
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. PEN's mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible....
OTV | Open Television is a platform for intersectional digital television that develops and supports the launch of indie series by Chicago-based Black, brown, differently abled, and queer artists. OTV aims to revolutionize the way TV and the arts are developed through an artist-centered and...
The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) is dedicated to seeking improved wages and working conditions for restaurant workers nationwide. Founded in New York City after September 11, 2001, to provide support to restaurant workers displaced as a result of the destruction of the World...
By Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke This summer’s crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has exposed America’s painful history of separating families. From the familial bonds ruptured by slavery, the forced removal and “re-education” of Native children, the World War II internment of Japanese families; mass incarceration; and the...
Wise Entertainment is an independent studio that develops, creates, and produces content that lives at the intersection of entertainment, social justice, and civic imagination. We tell stories for/by women and other underserved audiences in the U.S. and Brazil. The proof of concept of Wise's innovative...
Since 2011, CultureStrike has established itself as a leading force in the growing arts for social change field. Led by women of color and a 7-person team including undocumented, immigrant, and LGBTQ artists, and guided by the vision of its co-founder, visual artist Favianna Rodriguez,...
IllumiNative (launching in Fall 2018), conceived by a visionary group of Native artists, filmmakers, pop culture advocates, and thought leaders, is intended to illuminate the vibrancy of authentic Native experience....
Founded by Oscar-nominated director, writer, and activist Ava DuVernay, ARRAY Alliance amplifies stories of underrepresented communities by providing women filmmakers and people of color with the resources they need to ensure their diverse perspectives have a platform, while also cultivating audiences among communities starved of...
As a strategic initiative of the recently launched Time’s Up, 5050by2020 is galvanizing influencers and artists to interrogate structural systems, challenge leadership, and infuse social justice values into the content they create....
Unleashing Giants is a company dedicated to the empowerment of others. Its purpose is to inspire and nurture new voices - and old. They present human stories that break racial and economic boundaries, creating a mouthpiece for those who are not traditionally heard. ¬...
The League, an experimental narrative change agency, will explore rapid response strategies and structures that help social change movements and entertainment leaders use popular culture to capitalize on these catalyzing moments and in doing so, accelerate change for the better....
Storyline Partners collaborates with the entertainment industry, particularly TV writers rooms, to seed new narratives and support inclusive and nuanced storytelling that represents the authenticity and depth of communities who need a stronger voice in pop culture. Storyline Partners provides content creators with with credible...
The Pillars Fund invests in opportunities to elevate and amplify the leadership, narratives, and talents of American Muslims in civil society, the media, and public discourse....
Founded by migrant workers brought to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the National Guestworker Alliance organizes across the United States to win collective dignity and fairness in labor and migration policies. Through its new Resilience Corps, NGA will work...
Co-founded by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams, Harness seeks to amplify the work of social justice leaders to create a profound culture shift where historically marginalized communities define their own narratives, as well as equip people with the knowledge and tools to...
The Midwest Culture Lab is a project of the Alliance for Youth Organizing, a national network of grassroots organizing groups. The Midwest Culture Lab is anchored by two of the Alliance's affiliates in the Midwest (Chicago Votes, Ohio Student Association) and a narrative-based statewide organization...
By Heather Rae and Bethany Yellowtail For Blake and Misty-- our sisters who walked on too soon. There is a concept in Native tradition of burying old ways that no longer serve, that can no longer work, and creating a New Way. The notion is that as...
Movement leaders discuss how collaboration with Hollywood is changing the story for everyone By Jamilah King Over the last few years, steadily increasing pressure from within and outside of Hollywood has called for the entertainment industry to reckon with centering white males in front of the screen...
By Jamilah King How the iconic Oscar statuette came to be is a story many have speculated on, but none can pin down. In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a dinner at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to discuss...
By Shawn Taylor "It's Panther season, family." My cousin recently said this to me after I asked how her freshman year at an Ivy League university was going. Let's be clear, by no means is my cousin a comic book or superhero film fan. She always...
On January 21, the Pop Culture Collaborative co-sponsored a panel discussion with premiere production company Macro, about the new film Sorry to Bother You, a comedy fantasy about a black telemarketer in Oakland, California, written and directed by the legendary rapper Boots Riley. If you liked...
By Camila Maria Concepción, Favianna Rodriguez and Jill Soloway We are artists engaged in creating social change, because we know that culture is power. Art imagines possibility. The stories we interact with on a daily basis shape our human identity. They can either solidify dominant ideologies...
How can we imagine an inclusive America through storytelling? This was the question at the heart of a series of conversations co-sponsored by JustFilms | Ford Foundation and Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as part of an event, "Tell...
With the rise of stories by and for people of color, how will philanthropy and Hollywood support these cultural tastemakers? By Elizabeth Méndez Berry Black stories matter. That essential idea from Jamil Smith’s essay about Marvel’s Black Panther captures how intertwined storytelling and social change can be, and...
This year in entertainment began under the glow of the Golden Globe Awards, when actresses and activists walked the red carpet arm in arm to call for an end to harassment and discrimination in Hollywood and beyond. It was a powerful display of what becomes...
Tonight marks the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. Traditionally, the spotlight on these nights remains on the stars of television and film as they walk the red carpet and toast another year in entertainment and storytelling. This year, the Globes will look a little different. On...
BoomGen Studios has led over the past ten years within the entertainment industry to combat tired of the stereotypical, racist, and outright offensive caricatures of their culture and community in popular media....
The Opportunity Agenda is an innovative social justice communication lab founded in 2006, dedicated to the idea that our nation can and should be a place where everyone enjoys full opportunity. The Opportunity Agenda collaborates with leaders around the country to move hearts and minds,...
futurePerfect lab is a culture change lab founded in 2012 as the research and design home of Heidi Boisvert, PhD, a creative technologist (both artist and scientist) who has conceptualized, designed, developed, and disseminated a wide range of groundbreaking interactive, augmented reality and transmedia games...
ColorCreative's mission is to raise awareness for emerging women and minority writers, and provide a springboard for their careers by producing and selling their work to digital, network and cable platforms....
Moore + Associates is a creative agency that believes that cultural and narrative change is critical to political change. Neither an advertising agency nor PR firm, its work exists in the growing space in between, providing clients and artists with new ways to succeed at...
A social impact agency based in Hollywood, Propper Daley helps its clients leverage their unique assets to create positive change in the world. Propper Daley works with influencers, brands and causes, providing both strategic and creative solutions to move the needle on the issues they...
Graphic novelist and pop culture critic Jeff Yang and the Secret Identities team work with professional graphic storytellers and amateur creators to collaboratively imagine and bring to life organically diverse original superheroes inspired by the personal experiences and cultural heritage of those who traditionally haven't...
Pass the Mic aims to dramatically change the landscape of pop culture, to render it radically inclusive. They are founded on the belief that diversity is not a goal or a mandate. It is a reality. Pass the Mic focuses on inclusion and equity—making sure...
United We Dream aims to leverage moments and and content in pop culture to bring millions of people into the fight to protect the rights and strength of immigrants and refugee people....
Jolt Initiative is a Texas-based, Latino-focused grassroots organization that increases the civic participation of Latinos to build a stronger Texas and democracy. Jolt was launched after the 2016 election with a mission to increase the civic engagement, power, and leadership of Texas’s Latinx population by...
People in the real world draw inspiration from pop culture characters and narratives. It is up to leaders in the entertainment industry like Wise Entertainment to understand how to ensure we are inspiring positivity in the complex audiences we reach....
People's Action is one of the largest multiracial, people's organizations in the country made up of 48 member organizations with 600 local staff in 30 states representing a million grassroots leaders in communities and online. People's Action builds powerful state and local community organizations led...
Dec. 11, 2017, Los Angeles, CA -- Following the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's release of the Golden Globe nominations, the Pop Culture Collaborative is drawing attention to the lack of representation amongst this year's nominees, and pressing for more inclusion and recognition. Pop Culture...
This article was featured in "The Lily" by the Washington Post on December 10th, 2017. Click HERE visit their post. Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke believe pop culture can change the world. It can drive social movements, promote change, help us understand the past,...
Can the stories we tell in entertainment drive social change in the real world? Is the power of Pop Culture to inspire empathy the holy grail we think it is? What rules must be broken before culture can change in meaningful ways? And what can...
Welcome to Break The Story, a Pop Culture Collaborative publication. This is the first of four monthly themed collections curated and produced by Senior Fellow Jamilah King. ‘Break the Story' is not about breaking news, it refers to the TV storytelling process, where writers map...
By Bridgit Antoinette Evans She tells me it was suffocating. Even in January, the air in that Savannah jail was thick and humid. Being 16, in a crush of bodies, her ability to breathe was uncertain. Yet somehow, she knew that these women--mothers, daughters, sisters, wives,...
By Jamilah King, Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellow Spoiler Alert: This article contains snippets about storylines from the show Underground, which ran from 2016-2017 on the WGN America network. There's a moment in Misha Green's trailblazing television series Underground that sums up the showrunner's approach to...
By Eric K. Ward, Executive Director, Western States Center We're defeating white supremacy, but we're losing ground to white nationalism. I imagine this statement may have confused you. Aren't they the same thing? Simply put, no--and the distinction is critical. While white supremacy in the United States...
By Ameer "Left" Loggins On September 1, 2016 I watched my friend, Colin Kapernick, then the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback, kneel as the "Star Spangled Banner" played prior to the team's last preseason matchup. With that move, he began a campaign--which became known as #TakeAKnee--to raise...
By Jamilah King, Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellow Shonda Rhimes has big plans for Netflix. Is Donald Trump our first white president? What Dylan Roof didn't understand about black people. Even racist white folks want to condemn white supremacists. Why a Black Panther movie is revolutionary....
While progress toward positive change in Washington, DC is deadlocked, the combined forces of social movements and entertainment have paved the way for a defining, once-in-a-generation moment that will determine our shared future as a country. The recent wave of NFL protests has driven...
Four months ago, we joined the Pop Culture Collaborative as its original leadership team. We were immediately charged with the incredible challenge and opportunity to design and implement a broad vision and strategy for this multi-million dollar philanthropic resource and learning community. Since then, we...
The Pop Culture Collaborative Is A New Philanthropic Resource To Advance Authentic Narratives Of People Of Color, Immigrants, Refugees And Muslims In Pop Culture
(July 20, 2017 -- New York, NY) -- Today, the Pop Culture Collaborative announced over $700,000 in initial grant awards to social justice and entertainment organizations working to shift popular narratives in entertainment with regard to people of color, immigrant families and communities, Muslims, and refugee people. The investment comes from a core group of philanthropic foundations including the Ford Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, Nathan Cummings Foundation, The JPB Foundation, General Service Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and an anonymous donor that recently launched the Pop Culture Collaborative and appointed a team of dynamic leaders to oversee this new resource.
Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Executive Director, is widely recognized as one of the foremost thought leaders in the culture change field, with a career spent advising many of the nation's most influential entertainers and changemakers. Tracy Van Slyke, Strategy Director, has led at the intersection of media and movement-building for seventeen years, with a focus on social justice and storytelling for mass audiences. Jesse Moore heads communications and messaging, previously having led President Obama's entertainment and creative partnerships portfolio, mobilizing entertainment industry leaders to drive change on core policy priorities. This team, with the backing of some of the country's most respected philanthropic foundations, lead the Pop Culture Collaborative, a partnership-building and grantmaking organization positioned at the vertex of pop culture and social change. By advancing projects that harness the power of entertainment--TV, online shows, movies, music, sports and mass media--the Collaborative works to popularize authentic narratives about people of color, Muslims, immigrants and refugees in entertainment, and reshape how we see each other and envision America's future.
HARNESS, who is removing barriers and forging inroads for people of color-led movements to collaborate in the creation of more authentic stories. Wise Entertainment, producers of the popular HULU series East Los High, who are building new research and audience metric models to help the entertainment industry understand diverse audiences and the effectiveness of minority driven content. Caring Across Generations is elevating often-overlooked caregivers as multi-dimensional protagonists in society, transforming how we think about aging, race, gender, and community in the 21st century. Read more about all of our grantees on the website.
Now more than ever, the media being produced and consumed drives American culture and the nation's collective vision for the future. This new reality places unprecedented power in the hands of modern storytellers and entertainers in ways the social justice movement is only now beginning to fully explore for purposes of positive culture change and social progress. As movements for social change swell in American streets, and challenges to equity and inclusion ring louder than ever, the Collaborative represents a powerful new resource and social laboratory for entertainers, philanthropists and movement leaders to collaborate on projects that can move society toward understanding, equity, and meaningful cultural change. The Pop Culture Collaborative will collaborate on important projects in three fundamental ways:
"Momentum has been growing for years around the power of narratives and pop culture to awaken people to injustice in our society," said Executive Director Bridgit Antoinette Evans. "We've reached a tipping point within entertainment, as more and more artists and industry leaders begin to fully understand and embrace the role they can play in telling better stories that contribute to a stronger future."
"We see the cost to real people when negative or one-dimensional narratives about immigrants, refugees, Muslims and people of color take root in society," said Taryn Higashi, Executive Director of Unbound Philanthropy. "This investment in pop culture strategies, by a diverse group of philanthropic leaders, signals our firm belief that the policy and societal progress we seek requires an engaged and enlightened public - viewing each other through clear, authentic lenses."
"Leaders of social justice movements and organizations have long envisioned sustainable ways to work at the intersection of pop culture and social change," said Tracy Van Slyke, Strategy Director to the Collaborative. "This is the opportunity many of us have been waiting for to further the social justice movement's ability to work hand in hand with the entertainment industry to reach mass audiences."
The Pop Culture Collaborative has already awarded high value grants to several organizations and initiatives and is currently accepting idea submissions for both long-term and rapid response grant proposals via its website: https://popcollab.org/Grantees being announced today include: Caring Across Generations, Color of Change, Define American, futurePerfect lab, Harness, United We Dream Network and Wise Entertainment.
Dear Friends, How are you holding up? If you're like us, this week, month and year have been incredibly tough. As a community committed to advancing justice and equality, we have come together to mourn the loss of life, civil liberties, and sanctuary far too often, and...
You have likely heard from us over the past year about how we've been exploring a large-scale culture strategy to harness the power of pop culture for social change. We are thrilled to share with you the emergence of the Pop Culture Collaborative, which leverages...
"I am a citizen of an America that has yet to be born." – Dr. Vincent Harding American culture and narratives are rooted in a collective ambivalence about how we formed this country: rooted in both oppression and opportunity; open doors to some, closed to others;...
As an emerging powerhouse in both entertainment and social movements, Harness will design an organizational and programmatic strategy to ensure a long-term transformative impact on pop culture stories....
Define American promotes empathy and mutual understanding by sharing America's whole story in ways that are humanizing....
By consulting writers room staffs, showrunners and industry executives, Color Of Change seeks to reshape dominant narratives and shift cultural norms to ensure the entire entertainment industry responds with greater responsibility to the ways in which they represent Black people and other marginalized communities. Their...
An innovative pop culture strategy will enable Caring Across Generations to elevate often-overlooked caregivers as multi-dimensional protagonists in society, transforming how we think about aging, race, gender, and community in the 21st century. ¬ Their stories will illuminate the essential and complex role of caregiving...