Narrative Initiative

✨Announcement ➡️ REGISTER HERE: https://buff.ly/41mkXeG ✨ Join Narrative Initiative, Unicorn Authors Club, and the The New York Public Library for a special afternoon bringing together activists and artists around ✏️Writing Towards Healing and Awareness✏️ 📅Saturday February 1st, 2025 📍Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library ♿ Fully accessible to wheelchairs 🎟️Tickets — Free! Virtual & In-Person tickets required Event description below 👇 Links to learn more about Changemaker Authors are in the comments. ✨✨ How does writing allow us to explore political grief, collective joy, and the range of emotions in between? How can we interrogate systems, relationships, and ways of engaging with the world around us? Authors Zaina Arafat (Lambda Award winning author and educator), Premilla Nadasen (American historian and activist), and Ibi Zoboi (New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist) reflect on community building and systemic injustice through the lens of narrative nonfiction, Afrofuturism, and other forms of storytelling. This event is part of the Changemaker Authors Series, a series of conversations taking place over the course of 2025 at the intersections of grief, resistance, and storytelling. The series is a new iteration of the popular Changemaker Authors Conference.

🎟️ Registration Now Open! Free for in-person and digital attendees. Secure your spot today: https://buff.ly/41mkXeG The Changemaker Authors Series: Writing Towards Healing and Awareness (panel + workshop) Saturday, February 1, 2025, 2-4pm Eastern time Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library branch of the New York Public Library Speakers: ✨Zaina Arafat (Lambda Award winning author and educator) ✨Premilla Nadasen (activist, historian, author) ✨Ibi Zoboi (New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist) Brought to you in partnership with Unicorn Authors Club and the New York Public Library.

Disaster responders are trained to expect the unexpected. But with climate change reshaping the cadence and intensity of how we experience storms, rapid responders are leaning into the idea of “unexpect the expected.” This paradigm shift led Ginny Goldman to found Organizing Resilience after the 2021 Texas winter storm made global headlines that went beyond the typical reporting, and included politicians seizing bad-faith opportunities for their own anti-democratic agenda. Ginny says, “Power is contested in crisis moments.” This past March, Narrative Initiative joined organizers from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico in Houston, Texas for OR’s rapid response training that demonstrated “unexpect the expected” in more ways than one. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ek2XNBzz

Reflecting on our own 2024 highlights reminds us that rarely is anything worth doing ever done alone. Narrative Initiative is grateful to our colleagues, partners, and peers in the field who organized, wrote, and convened us closer towards a true multiracial democracy. ✨ March | Narrative Initiative joins Organizing Resilience for their climate disaster rapid response training in Houston, Texas. The training quickly turned into a real-life rapid response when a derecho hit Houston overnight. ✨ May | Changemaker Author Silky Shah publishes Unbuild Walls and begins a national tour making the case for abolition as a winning strategy for the immigration justice movement. ✨ Summer | Hybrid staff retreat in Durham, North Carolina where we came together to plan ahead, strengthen our relationships, and play fun games. Bonus highlight: Visiting the local butterfly museum. ✨ September | Narrative Initiative publishes the Narrative Election Guide for Immigrant Futures, featuring research from Define American and Harmony Labs. Over 250 organizers and leaders from the immigration justice movement joined our public briefing ahead of the U.S. general election. ✨ October | Changemaker Author Tiffany Yu publishes The Anti-Ableist Manifesto. She appears on a Times Square billboard to launch the book, and goes on tour promoting a much-needed framework intervention for how to discuss ableism and dismantle it. ✨ November | Narrative Initiative hosts a pre-conference gathering at Facing Race and two popular panel sessions on book publishing and DIY narrative research methods. Narrative Initiative’s Executive Director Rinku Sen takes the stage as a keynote speaker during the National Health Equity Grand Rounds plenary at Facing Race. This plenary was produced in partnership with the American Medical Association, and a recording is available to the public as well as medical students seeking educational credits.

As we close out 2024, Word Force reflects on the achievements of our Changemaker organizations and what to look forward to in 2025. ✨ Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network, Coalition for Human Rights in Development, and Amplify Georgia publish well-timed opinion pieces across varying platforms that collectively reach millions of readers. ✨ Missouri Workers Center and Amplify Georgia have members take the stage for a live storytelling event in St. Louis ✨ Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California joins us as a Changemaker organization Upcoming in 2025: ✨ Narrative Initiative and Unicorn Authors Club are partnering with The New York Public Library for a free, hybrid Changemaker Authors Series workshop and panel on February 1st, 2025. Registration is free. ✨ Radical Communicators Network (RadComms) is hosting the Narrative Power Summit on May 7-10, 2025 in a city in the American South

Organizers can help us imagine what a multiracial democracy can look like, but only if we can access their stories. This past November, Rinku Sen, Minal Hajratwala, and Jennifer Baker held a panel at Facing Race (Race Forward) to demystify the book production process. Thank you to everyone who attended and shared exciting questions on the power of books. Our next Changemaker Authors event will be on Saturday February 1st, 2025 in partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. This hybrid event is ticketed — but tickets are free. Event details: https://buff.ly/3ZX3ZCH Free registration (required): https://buff.ly/41mkXeG Pictured: Rinku, Minal, and Jenn holding copies of two books published by Changemaker Authors Cohort members this year: Detention Watch Network Executive Director Silky Shah’s “Unbuild Walls” and Diversability® founder Tiffany A. Yu, MSc’s “The Anti-Ableist Manifesto.”

“Your trauma is not your politics. Your grief is not your principles.” — Malkia Devich Cyril. Organizers like Malkia have been engaging explicitly on the role and potential of grief in politics. Read more about their book project, “Radical Loss: Black Grief Can Change the World” as a member of the Changemaker Authors Cohort below. How does writing allow us to explore political grief, collective joy, and the range of emotions in between? Join us on Saturday February 1st, for our next Changemaker Authors event: a panel and workshop event on “Writing Toward Healing and Awareness.” Register today to get your in-person or online (free!) ticket. Link in comments.

The Forge Project is accepting applications for its 2025 funded fellowship program for Indigenous cultural workers, organizers, scholars, artists, researchers, and educators! They are seeking six Indigenous individuals that represent a broad diversity of cultural practices, participatory research, organizing models, and geographical contexts that honor Indigenous pasts as well as build Native futures. Learn more and apply online today! https://lnkd.in/gp7Hbrt3

Narrative research is a vital tool for any organization, foundation, coalition, or network working with frontline communities. It helps uncover what is being said, how it's said, and why these narratives matter to individuals and communities. Zakyree Wallace, M.A. and Francesca Koe walk through the techniques that form the backbone of an informed narrative strategy. Read: https://buff.ly/4fWgiEm ✨ ✨ If you're at Facing Race this week in St. Louis, you can join a live panel conversation on DIY Narrative Research Methodologies this Thursday during the 11 AM - 12:30 PM block.

In the quest for health equity, how we tell stories matters. When stories consistently use the same moral and ethical framing, narratives begin to emerge that have an impact on everything from public health policy to individual health outcomes. Together, we can create a more inclusive and just healthcare system by transforming the stories we tell and the way we approach patient care. Moderator(s) Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH Speaker(s) Rinku Sen, MS Michelle Browder Mehret Mandefro, MD, PhD Garth Graham MD, MPH Bayard Love, MBA, MP 📍Location — This is a live panel that will be live streamed from Facing Race 🎟️ Registration — Free and open to the public ➡️ https://buff.ly/3UOSMkK The event is developed by American Medical Association, ACGME, National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, and Disability Belongs with support from ABIM Foundation, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), American Society of Addiction Medicine - ASAM, AMA Ed Hub, Boston Medical Center (BMC), Council of Medical Specialty Societies, HealthBegins, Kaiser Permanente, Sinai Chicago, Social Mission Alliance, The Hastings Center, The Joint Commission, Rush University Medical Center, Medical Society of Delaware, American Epilepsy Society, American Society of Nephrology, Minnesota Medical Association, and MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society Follow Race Forward for more information about Facing Race: A National Conference