Threads of Change: Empowering BIPOC Communities Through Data Storytelling

Each election year, we build on the work of grassroots organizers and movements to continue transitioning political power to BIPOC communities. Threads of Change is the Cultural Engagement Lab’s formative election mobilizing campaign that utilizes creative data visualization to advance narratives that combat disinformation about health equity, gender, and climate policy.

Issue advocacy and mobilization of voters requires intentional outreach into underserved regions of the U.S., which is why the Cultural Engagement Lab specifically prioritizes our 2024 key states – Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. These southwest and southern states are heavily populated with BIPOC voters who experience the effects of gerrymandering and political propaganda, as well as voter disenfranchisement. It raises the question of how much culture has been lost through stolen land in the United States. Black Family Land Trust records that 15 million acres of land were owned by African Americans between 1865 and 1919, compared to the following century, when they only accounted for 14% of farm owners, whereas today they control less than 1%. 

 In North Carolina specifically, the vulnerability of rural communities has increased alongside the effects of climate change, which disproportionately impacts farmers and agricultural workers. According to the USDA Census of Agricultural Historical Archive, out of the nearly 43,000 farms currently operating in North Carolina, only 1.9% are Black-owned, compared to 8.26% in 1920. This is heavily attributed to systemic racism and unjust land practices, and the widening socioeconomic divide and increase in mortality rates affecting BIPOC communities in the Black Belt region is a product of environmental racism. 

Jamila Brown is an interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Creatively, her practice consists of mixed media, performance, and alt-process photographic works that conceptually center Black and Brown people, ancestral reverence, and spirituality. For Threads of Change, she created three digital and hand-made collages that speak personally to farmworkers' ancestral and cultural traditions. 

‍

suffrage, sowing, digital collage, 2024. -  “An ode to an elder and friend, Mr. Bernard, who recently lost over twelve acres of NC farmland and journeyed to experience homeland on the African continent, and an ode to the Black suffrage movement and the connection between voting rights and rights to farmland/agricultural knowledge. Both are embodiments of necessary seeds sown to create better futures that are reverent to the Earth, those who came before, and a unified struggle toward liberation and ownership.”

voters, villages, hand-made and digital collage, 2024.  - “This piece depicts images of Jordanian farmers, indigenous matriarchs, and Black suffragists writing on ballots, all merging with the landscape; they represent interconnected kinship of cultures, ancestral knowledge, and an appreciation for the matriarchs, who more often than not are the true leaders of movement work.”

shepherd, of stardust, hand-made and digital collage, 2024. - “This work is a scan of a hand-made woven paper collage. Weaving together the image of a boy leading bison with a capture of the cosmos, and aligning them in right relationship, they become one in the same. This afrofuturist piece hints at the importance of tending to land, animals, and the resources that we're given now in order to create more possibilities for the future.” 

‍

Threads of Change aims to explore using arts and culture to engage voters and potentially flip political outcomes in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.  The number of majority Black, indigenous, and Latiné cities and counties within these states remains typically unacknowledged and underrepresented in the electoral process. We intend to empower communities of color through data storytelling and shift narratives to center cultural traditions as solutions for a more sustainable future. 

‍

We value our relationships with our movement partners who strive with us to increase political momentum for liberation through voter engagement exponentially.

‍

Poder NC Action is a pro-Black, pro-Latinx, pro-LGBTQ, and pro-Choice organization focusing on civic and leadership development with values-aligned Latinxs. Poder NC’s approach invests in the leadership skills and civic development of nuestra gente so that North Carolinians have the tools to make their voices heard on issues they care about. 

Progress Georgia - Part of the Progress Now network, Progress Georgia is a political digital and communications hub for the progressive movement in Georgia. Progress Georgia works to uplift the values and voices of the progressive movement across the state by keeping politicians accountable and elevating the issues that matter most to our communities.

Black Voters Matter - Black Voters Matter aims to increase power in predominantly marginalized communities. They believe that effective voting allows a community to determine its destiny.

Pro-Choice AZ - Pro-Choice Arizona and the Abortion Fund of Arizona center abolition and reproductive justice values to prioritize community needs. They advance reproductive equity, pregnancy and family justice, and abortion access for all folks living in Arizona through direct service programs, education, advocacy, mutual aid, and research.

‍

Want to learn more about all of our partners and join our data storytelling journey by partnering with our Threads of Change campaign? Contact us at info@culturalengagementlab.org