Story Movements 2024

March 7th & March 8th

Planet Word Museum

925 13th St NW, Washington, DC 20005

Speakers

Maori Karmael Holmes

BlackStar Projects

Maori Karmael Holmes

Maori has organized programs in film at Anthology Film Archives, ICA Philadelphia, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The Underground Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art. She has organized the exhibitions Terence Nance: Swarm (2023), Assemblage (2019), and Lossless(2017).

Full Biography

Natalie Bullock Brown

Documentary Accountability Working Group

Natalie Bullock Brown

Natalie Bullock Brown is an award-winning producer, a 2021 Rockwood Institute JustFilms Fellow, and the proud director of the Documentary Accountability Working Group, a collective she helped to found in 2020, which released a values informed framework for documentary filmmakers in 2022 that emphasizes care, consent, and collaboration as a pathway to ethical storytelling.

Full Biography

Maggie Crane

Comedian

Maggie Crane

Maggie Crane is a stand-up, writer and actress in New York City. She has been featured in The New York Comedy Festival, High Mud Comedy Festival and has just returned from debuting her hit solo show Side by Side at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She can be seen on HBO, Comedy Central, and in dive bars all over Brooklyn.

Isaias Hernandez

Queer Brown Vegan

Isaias Hernandez

Isaias Hernandez is an educator and creative devoted to improving environmental literacy through content creation, storytelling, and public engagements.

Isaias is more commonly known by his moniker, Queer Brown Vegan: the independent media platform he started to bring intersectional environmental education to all. His journey to deconstruct complex issues, while centering diversity and authenticity, has resonated with a worldwide audience.

Full Biography

Nick Marx

Colorado State University

Nick Marx

Nick Marx is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. His co-authored book exploring the rise of right-wing comedy, That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them, was named by Vulture as the 3rd best comedy book of 2022. He is author or co-editor of three other books exploring the relationship between comedy, media, and politics: Sketch Comedy: Identity, Reflexivity, and American Television (2019), The Comedy Studies Reader (2018), and Saturday Night Live and American TV (2013).

Sahar Driver

Color Congress

Sahar Driver

Sahar is a veteran documentary impact strategist, field builder, and researcher. Her career has focused on social and cultural transformation through nonfiction storytelling. She has led impact campaigns and strategy for over two-dozen documentaries, independently and with Active Voice. She has designed and led impact trainings and grantmaking programs to support impact producers and filmmakers of color with Firelight Media.

Full Biography

Brandon Kramer

MHP

Brandon Kramer

Brandon is a DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of MHP. Brandon directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH. Brandon won Best Director at the 2016 Chesapeake Film Festival and Indie Capital Awards, and was a 2022 & 2015 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Individual Arts Fellow. Brandon has directed over 30 short films commissioned by organizations including the AARP and US Institute of Peace. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.

Kurt Braddock

American University

Kurt Braddock

Dr. Kurt Braddock is an Assistant Professor of Public Communication at American University. His research focuses on the persuasive tactics used by extremists to recruit and radicalize audiences to their cause. Dr. Braddock has published many articles and chapters on these topics in key security and communication journals, including Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Communication Monographs, New Media & Society, and others.

Full Biography

Ravi Iyer

USC Marshall School’s Neely Center

Ravi Iyer

Ravi Iyer is the Managing Director of the USC Marshall School’s Neely Center. Previously, he spent 4+ years leading data science, research and product teams across Meta toward improving the societal impact of social media. He has a Ph.D. in social psychology from USC, co-founded Ranker and continues to work at the intersection of academia, civil society, and the technology industry.

Nabiha Syed

The Markup

Nabiha Syed

Nabiha Syed is the chief executive officer of The Markup, an award-winning journalism non-profit that challenges technology to serve the public good. Under her leadership, The Markup’s unique approach has been referenced by Congress 21 times, inspired dozens of class action lawsuits, won a national Murrow Award and a Loeb Award, and been recognized as “Most Innovative” by FastCompany in 2022.

Full Biography

Ali Petrosova

Good Energy

Ali Petrosova

Alisa Petrosova leads the consulting program and climate research for Good Energy and has spearheaded bold storytelling projects at the intersection of Hollywood and climate with studio executives, showrunners, screenwriters, and organizations like Spotify, Wondery, and CBC.Alisa has also worked on research teams for TV/films that reach millions of people, including Extrapolations on Apple TV+ with showrunner Scott Z. Burns.

Full Biography

Jasiri X

1Hood Media

Jasiri X

Jasiri X is the first independent Hip-Hop artist to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate, which he received from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2016. Still, he remains rooted in the Pittsburgh-based organization he co-founded, 1Hood Media, whose mission is to build liberated communities through art, education, and social justice. In 2017, he received the Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship to start the 1Hood Artivist Academy. Jasiri is also a recipient of the USA Cummings Fellowship in Music, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellowship, and the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

Rollie Williams

Comedian

Rollie Williams

Rollie Williams is a Brooklyn-based comedian, video editor, and guy with both student debt and a Climate Science & Policy degree from Columbia University. He is the creator and host of the digital comedy series Climate Town. In the past few years, the channel has amassed 544,000 subscribers, several millions views, a handful of awards, and has spawned an engaged Discord community of fun climate people.

Full Biography

Ashwath Narayanan

Social Currant

Ashwath Narayanan

Ashwath is the Co-founder & CEO at Social Currant, a DC based managed service and platform that matches social impact organizations and nonprofits with the influencers and content creators across social media platforms. He founded Social Currant while a student at The George Washington University and continues to manage the firm. Social Currant has helped tens of advocacy organizations work with thousands of creators and reach millions of people around critical progressive causes.

Full Biography

Yasmin Elhady

Comedian

Yasmin Elhady

Yasmin Elhady is a touring comedian and storyteller. She’s performed at The Kennedy Center and is featured on NBC’s True Story with Ed Helms and Randall Park. She’s also appeared on NPR, Netflix is a Joke Radio on SiriusXM, and The Washington Post, WUSA9 with Reese Waters, and in Vice Media’s book “Little America: Incredible True Stories of Immigrants in America,” which was later turned into an Apple TV+ series by Kumail Nanjiani. She was named a 2022 “Yes, And…Laughter Lab” finalist for comedy and social justice.

Gabe González

MC/Comedian

Gabe González

Gabe González is a Puerto Rican comedian, writer and actor living in Brooklyn, NY. He was born and raised in Central Florida.

Gabe can be seen in Season 4 of The Last OG, the HBO Latino documentary Habla y Vota, and recently starred in Audible’s The Comedians. He was featured in Brooklyn Magazine’s ’30 Under 30’ in 2017, Time Out New York’s ‘Comedians of Color You Should Know’ in 2018 and his pilot ‘Los Blancos’ was a winner at the Yes And Laughter Lab in 2019.

Full Biography

D’Lo

Comedian

D’Lo

D’Lo is an LA Based queer/trans actor/writer/comic whose work range includes stand-up, solo theater, plays, films and poetry. His solo shows Ramble-Ations, D’FunQT and To T, or not To T have been presented at theaters & festivals internationally, and his stand-up show D’FaQTo Life tours the college/university circuit. His work has been published and/or written about in academic journals, literary anthologies, and print/online journalism sources, such as LA Times, The Guardian, NBC, and The Advocate.

Full Biography

Monique Verdin

Monique Verdin is an transdisciplinary artist who documents the complex relationship between environment, culture, and climate in southeast Louisiana. She is a citizen of the Houma Nation, director of The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange and a Bvlbancha Liberation Radio collaborator. Monique is supporting the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo (People of the Sacred Medicine Trail), a network of indigenous gardeners, as the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network Gulf South food and medicine sovereignty program manager. She is co-producer of the documentary My Louisiana Love and her work has been included in a variety of environmentally inspired projects, including the multiplatform performance Cry You One and the collaborative book Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations.