STEP 4 —

FINDING YOUR APPROACH TO Action

Many Paths, One Goal

WHERE DO YOUR VALUES AND GOALS FOR CHANGE SHOW UP WITHIN YOUR WORK?

Let’s take a bird’s eye view for a second. You’ve decided now that you have a mission, a goal and a cause to lift up. How do you want to do that? Are you more inclined towards individual activism or are you ready to join or start a group? Here are some examples of what action looks like:

Individual Activism Examples

Donating to causes you care about
Interpersonal and community advocacy
Civic action like letter writing, voting and sharing your personal story
Creating art (music, visual art, film, etc) about the causes and viewpoints you care about
Discontinuing support of problematic brands
Supporting businesses owned by minoritized populations
Self-education

Group Activism Examples

Community art-making and cultural affirmation
Organizing and strategizing with an existing group for better policies or processes
Mutual aid and pooling resources toward the causes you support (whether that’s money, connections, knowledge, or otherwise)
Community and public education
Community fundraising
Political action like lobbying or canvassing

WHICH ACTIONS ARE YOU TAKING?

storytelling, community work and art have always had a relationship toward justice and movement-building.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Throughout history, there are examples of movements taking off that created ripple effects and shifted world paradigms. The civil rights movement throughout the 50s and 60s which worked to dismantle systemic racism, the gender equality fight of the 70s, the Chicano movement, the response to the AIDS crisis, to mention only a small few.

These movements were not only driven by political players, but by disruptive artists, cultural workers and icons who went from anonymity to becoming the face of an entire movement, the way Sylvia Mendez at 9 years old helped pave the way for Brown vs. the Board of Education.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful actions we can engage in. Across centuries, propaganda, art and even folktales have all conspired to create dangerous stereotypes and promote fear of the “other.”

As we slowly transition into a mediascape and literary landscape where more diverse artists, creatives, cultural workers and storytellers have room to tell their own stories, we do work to humanize ourselves.

So, How can you find power and joy in your story?

Telling the world about how our communities have been hurt is important, but a side effect of always ingesting stories about our pain is that we start to feel hopeless. We suddenly get flooded by our own suffering, whether it’s through the news or the stories we consume through television and film.

The minoritized individual is equated to a tragic figure, therefore “joy” becomes a radical act for these communities. Not only as a beacon of hope to tell others they too can overcome their tribulations (even if it’s only momentarily), but to scream to the oppressor that their scare tactics will not defeat us.

People in power count on their own systemic control (and our own self-oppression) to render us powerless, demotivated, and stripped of all ability to rally. When we allow ourselves moments of joy in between the fighting and advocacy, we allow ourselves to be fully human. We are able to celebrate the beauty in our cultures, our neighborhoods and those we hold dear.

So, the next time you feel guilty for laughing at a joke or smiling while there is so much going on in the world, remind yourself that moments of joy are as integral to your work as anything else.