Celebrating Storytelling During Black Narrative Power Month

Media 2070 celebrates each February as Black Narrative Power Month — an opportunity to commemorate Black history and what it means to us today. This year, the team chose to highlight themes of legacy, sacredness, storytelling and tradition.

We began the year by grounding ourselves and exploring the breadth of our stories to fortify ourselves for the journey we know lies ahead of us. Together, we amplify our collective power, and we are doing just that.

What is Black narrative power?

We describe Black narrative power as resistance, care, love, beauty and abundance. Dig into the rich resources, analysis, content and programming we shared in February under these central tenets.

Resistance: In the face of ongoing attacks from the Trump administration, erosion of public trust in corporate media and serious threats to democracy, Black media institutions may be the last line of defense in providing honest coverage of the communities most targeted by systemic oppression. Black media outlets like the New York Amsterdam News provide critical infrastructure for community-information systems and speak truth to power. Read my Op-Ed in America’s most influential and enduring Black newspaper, which has been in publication for over 115 years.

Care: Since the inception of this nation, the prevailing narrative about Black people has been one of inhumanity. To combat the myth of Black inferiority — and to fight anti-Black racism — we must be both willing and able to showcase our full humanity. The Black Narrative Power Toolkit is a handy compilation of resources to help remind Black media-makers of our humanity, fuel our wellness practices and inform our political analysis. Download and share the toolkit.

Love: Partnered with a practice of caring for one another, we must see love as an active and potent force. It is because of this deep love that we resist and destroy any hindrance to all of us flourishing. We will create new worlds, new suns in which we all thrive, through narratives that demonstrate the truth and power of love.

This practice is demonstrated in the creative act: Watch this wonderful behind-the-scenes  conversation on the making of the Reparative Journalism Video Series, which features Diamond Hardiman in conversation with Courtney Morrison.

Beauty: The stories that we tell will help shape and fuel our imaginations and beliefs about what is possible. Our stories of past, present and future beauty will help keep us along the way. Black Narrative Power Month culminated with the livestream panel discussion “The Lineage of Sacred Storytelling.” Venneikia Williams opened the conversation, which Diamond moderated. Historian Arianne Edmonds, artist Allen Frimpong, Black Media Initiative Director Cheryl Thompson-Morton and children’s author Alexa Williams discussed the lineages that inspire their media-making. This rich discussion invoked the traditions of storytelling from journalism, archiving family trees, children’s stories, Ghanaian folktales and sharing across generations.

Abundance: Abundance is a principle, a practice and a muscle we get to strengthen together. We can tell stories about how there is more than enough. We can make media about non-hierarchical, mutually beneficial, care-filled and love-fueled practices. We can share information to get what we are owed and give of what we have. We can visualize cultures where no one goes without. The stories we create can speak life into futures abundant with resistance, care, love and beauty.

What’s next in the fight for media reparations?

Join us all year long in building Black Narrative Power! Media 2070 is committed to creating a world where we can share Black stories from ideation to distribution. Oppression and injustice are real threats to our world-building. That’s why we are creating spaces such as the Media 2070 Member Consortium to be the space where we build the strength and strategy to fight back.

This video from Malkia Devich-Cyril’s keynote address to the Media 2070 Membership Consortium charges us to exercise this power to resist and build the movements necessary to bring about the world we dream of.

The Black radical tradition is evidence that what we deserve does not come about without a struggle. But we fight believing that we will win. Join us in organizing and mobilizing, taking risks and exercising collective power. We honor the Black press and its role in advancing Black liberation. Winning media reparations means that we control our narratives. Let’s begin by ensuring that Black-owned, community-serving media are robustly resourced and supported.

Our current media ecosystem serves some at the expense of others. From news to entertainment, there is a dominant narrative that erases and exploits us. It doesn’t have to be this way. Join Media 2070 as we create cultural and infrastructural policies and practices that get us closer to the goal we’re working toward.

Watch the “Lineage of Sacred Storytelling” event and donate today to support Media 2070’s essential work.