July 2022 Update from IRIS
In this newsletter: IRIS turns one!
“It’s official—IRIS is one year old, though at a time such as this, one year signifies 10, or even 100, given the speed of change across all societal dimensions. Despite the rapidly shifting contours of these times, IRIS holds to a vision that is ancient. IRIS imagines a world where artists—storytellers of all kinds—are central to building power in communities most impacted by injustice and intolerance. IRIS believes that their imagination and courage are indispensable to creating a stronger civil society. In turn, a stronger civil society can demand to have a voice in what happens to people who are most vulnerable. Together with donors and civil society leaders, we work to strengthen and support networks and initiatives at the intersection of creative storytelling, civic innovation and narrative analysis to contribute to more just and inclusive futures.
The past year has seen an international team come together to support work in multiple regions, with more to come. Our first slate of grants are being identified with donor and field input. The IRIS team has expanded to nine talented professionals animating our regional expertise, deep local networks and a vision for global solidarity across multiple issue areas through storytelling and narrative change tactics.
As we enter our second year, still navigating a global pandemic and against a backdrop of environmental collapse, technological disruption and intolerable stress on democratic systems, I am reminded of biologist and writer Edward O. Wilson’s writing: ‘Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.’
This quote opens the book Another End of the World Is Possible, and it resonates deeply. Humans may dominate the planet currently and have its fate in our unworthy hands. How can the more balanced approach that recognizes limits and moderation rather than growth, extraction and dominance be rooted, and with speed? Wilson’s thesis is that the capacity humans have to cooperate for the benefit of the larger group exists, but will always be in an unstable relationship to the interests of individuals to compete and dominate. He makes the point that humans will never achieve perfect harmony for the ‘group,’ nor would it survive a completely individualistic worldview.
IRIS’ contribution to the present moment lies in trying to navigate this paradox at the heart of being human through a focus on storytelling and meaning-making. How do we activate the altruism and imagination that is a late-comer to our evolutionary history, and deactivate survivalist and competitive instincts that humans are hard-wired with? Our prioritizing of creativity as a method to build power and raising up stories from the perspectives of those with the most experience of injustice is all filtered through the question of how humans make meaning through stories. It is our hope that this work can help us thrash less and cooperate more towards a good common to all of life.”
IRIS & Purposeful Launch “Circle of Us” Fellowship for Young Feminists in Sierra Leone and Kenya
Circle of Us is a yearlong fellowship for young feminists and nonbinary youth launched by Purposeful with IRIS’ support. Two cohorts of ten participants from Sierra Leone, Kenya and Tanzania will build their visual storytelling skills as part of their leadership practice. Partners in Freetown and Nairobi include African Youth Voices and DocuBox as Story Hubs. This first year will model the fellowship, in anticipation of creating an annual cycle. Kickoff workshops in Sierra Leone and Kenya in July have brought the groups together with mentors and staff to support the participants as they discover their own stories of resistance. Circle of Us is supported by the Ford Foundation.
Telling Our Story: IRIS’ + Ford Foundation’s October 2021 Convening
IRIS is interested in telling the story of the work we do in communities and networks in new and fresh ways, often centering the skills of Global South creators to do this. Last October, IRIS worked with the Ford Foundation’s Mexico/Central America Office to gather together more than 70 storytellers and activists in the Ford grantee network to share inspiration and evoke curiosity about new forms of storytelling and impactful narratives that respond to our present moment.
The fine artists at Bogotá-based Pataleta joined our journey and have created a video poem to celebrate the experience and record the vision behind the work showcased there. Please take a look and lift it up as a model for the power of creative storytelling and narrative change in harmony with civil society and community.
RPA Spotlight: How IRIS Uses Storytelling to Drive Social Change
IRIS has turned one, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) is celebrating their 20th Anniversary. This month, RPA is featuring a special Q&A with team IRIS. You can read the interview with Founding Director Cara Mertes and Regional Leads Graciela Selaimen and Laila Hourani on our website.
IRIS’ Latin American Work Expanding with Graciela Selaimen
Since January, IRIS has been working with the Open Society Foundations’ Latin America Program to strengthen organizations and networks in the region to better develop narratives that promote socio-environmental justice, and foster strategic alliances between storytellers, media and cultural institutions and social justice organizations.
A cohort of 34 organizations have begun regular meetings to explore critical dimensions of narrative change strategies and work. They hope to develop a vision about shared goals and opportunities to collaborate in advancing social justice causes. With OSF Program Officer Bruno Duarte, IRIS LatAm Lead Graciela Selaimen and Researcher Carol Misorelli are diving into existing narrative and storytelling initiatives in the region to identify strengths, hubs, networks and gaps to be addressed as we foster a robust, vibrant and well-connected ecosystem.
SSIR Publishes A New Article by Brett Davidson: What Makes Narrative Change So Hard?
In his latest piece, published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Narrative Lead Brett Davidson reminds us that nonprofits and funders can go too far in pointing fingers at their own shortcomings. Much of the disappointment that spurred Narrative Change as a field has its roots in the realization that human rights policy victories were being reversed or never implemented to begin with.
IRIS has turned one! Image credit: Pataleta.