Level Forward x Broadway Advocacy Coalition Workshop: Storytelling for Social Good (SFSG)
Tribeca Talks
| 90 MINUTES“Everything we believe comes from a story we've been told." - Heather McGee, author and policy advocate
In a world where dominant narratives have the power to dismiss and erase those most historically marginalized, how can storytelling be a tool to re-shape our attitudes, understanding, and behavior “for good”? In this high-participatory workshop co-created & facilitated by Andrea Ambam (Level Forward) and Dria Brown (Broadway Advocacy Coalition), participants will embark on a guided journey filled with prompts and provocations that sharpen the iron of conscious storytellers wondering what they can do to use their craft for social good, while balancing commercial success. Utilizing Tribeca 2023 selections (Mountains, Bad Things, and The League) as activation, participants will 1) hear from creators who exemplify the intersection of storytelling and impact through their work and 2) be prompted to generate stories with the power for impact. Ultimately, “Storytelling for Social Good” asks us all to consider: What is my responsibility as a culture-maker with the power to shape and tell stories? What are the dominant narratives that I'm looking to subvert through my storytelling? And most importantly, how many untold, liberatory stories emerge when we alI commit to storytelling for social good?
This workshop features guest storytellers: Monica Sorelle (Mountains), Byron Motley (The League), and Rad Pereira (Bad Things).
Panelists
Dria Brown
Dria Brown is an artDoula (creative producer, facilitator, artist) from South Carolina, living and working in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). Dria’s multi-hyphenate practices center the lush and freedom-filled possibilities that exist in a world where all Black people, and specifically Black women and femmes are centered and cared for. Dria is currently the Co-Director of Programming at the Tony award-winning arts advocacy nonprofit, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a Theater of Change Facilitator at Columbia Law School, the Senior Creative Producer of Britton & The Sting - a funk liberation band based in NYC and a Creative Producer on a new Terence Nance project premiering at The Whitney Museum in the fall. Dria finds sanctuary in culinary food rituals that nourish her loved ones and lives with her co-dependent dog daughter Mooriah Carey in crown heights. www.driabrown.com
Andrea Ambam
Andrea Ambam is an award-winning storyteller, truthteller, and worldbender whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically-engaged writer, performance artist, and producer, Andrea seeks to reflect the times and generate new timelines via critical commentary, unruly imagination, and multi-modal creations that interrogate how we get free. Currently, Andrea is developing new theatrical work and serving as the Director of Programming at Level Forward - a public-benefit entertainment studio – where she produces and hosts the Anthem Award-winning audience engagement platform More To Talk About. She has developed her multi-hyphenated artistic practice through fellowships and residencies with New York Theatre Workshop, PEN America, Hi-Arts, Anna Deavere Smith, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The Playwrights Realm, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Signature Theatre, and EmergeNYC; and collaboration with JACK, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, NYU Verbatim Performance Lab, Girls Write Now, NYU Prison Education Program, Harlem9, and others. Andrea has been pulsating at the intersection of art, current events, and social impact for over a decade, beginning as a competitive public speaker where she was awarded 10 national championships including "Top Speaker in the Nation'' three times, and went on to debate conservative pundits on live TV. Her plays include: Twelve Angry Black Women (Fault Line Theatre’s Irons in The Fire Finalist), Fragile State (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, Rattlestick Van Lier Fellowship Semifinalist), R(estoration) I(n) P(rogress) (NYU Educational Theatre/Provincetown Playhouse 2023), Rehearsing Justice: A One-Woman Show (Brooklyn Arts Exchange 2022), and Angelina Weld Grimke (Classical Theatre of Harlem/Playbill, Broadway Podcast Network). Andrea holds a Master’s degree in Art & Public Policy from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Co-hosted by:
