Liberation Stories: Editors & Contributors In Conversation

This event takes place in person at Charis and on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. Click here to register to attend virtually. Please read the in-person event guidelines at the bottom of this page to be sure you can participate in the event.

Charis welcomes Charlene Carruthers to moderate a conversation with editors Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska and anthology contributors for a discussion of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st-Century Social Movements, a timely and instructive handbook for telling stories that change the world. More details forthcoming on contributors that will be joining us.

The twenty-first century has seen a profound shift in the global sociopolitical and economic landscape, shaped by seismic interventions ranging from the War on Terror to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2000 and 2024, social movements like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, climate justice, the Fight for $15, Palestine liberation, health care for all, and queer and trans resistance have illuminated a new narrative--one rooted in an inclusive vision of society, driven by a newly politicized and radicalized generation. This shift did not happen by chance. Movement workers have meticulously crafted communications and narrative strategies, honing their political messaging and storytelling to seize narrative power in today's struggles.

In Liberation Stories, today's foremost progressive and leftist communicators, organizers, artists, journalists, and academics share their collective wisdom in one powerful volume. Featuring in-depth case studies of both contemporary and historical movements, Liberation Stories distills successful theories, strategies, and tactics for anyone wanting to understand--and participate in--the diverse initiatives currently shaping our society.

As far-right and conservative movements gain traction worldwide--attacking our books, our bodies, and our democracies--Liberation Stories emerges as a vital resource for constructing the world we envision, one story at a time.

About the Editors

Shanelle Matthews collaborates with social justice activists, organizations, and campaigns to inspire action and build narrative power for social justice and liberation. She is the former communications director for the Movement for Black Lives and the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Shanelle founded the Radical Communicators Network, a global community of practice for social movement communications workers. She is also a former Activist-in-Residence and faculty member of Freedom Scholars at The New School. Today, she teaches full-time as a distinguished lecturer at the City College of New York in the Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies. Her courses include Narrative Power in the Black Radical Tradition, Rhetoric of Liberation: The Role of Narrative Power in Contemporary Movements, and Black Women's Resistance: Narratives of Safety and Survival. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements (New Press, June 2025). She lives in Brooklyn.

Marzena Zukowska is an organizer, communications strategist, and the co-­ founder and co-­ director of the UK-­ based immigrant rights organization POMOC. For a decade, Marzena has developed narrative and organizing strategies for leading social and political movements in the United States, the UK, and Europe. They are the former media director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and a former leadership team member at the Radical Communicators Network. Their work has been published in two ­ anthologies—­ Queer Activism After Marriage Equality (Routledge) and Asylum for Sale: Profit and Protest in the Migration Industry (PM Press)—and they co-­ authored New Brave World, a report on the field of pop culture for social change in the UK. They are the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements (New Press, June 2025). Marzena is a queer, nonbinary Polish immigrant who was born in Białystok, Poland, and grew up undocumented in Chicago, United States.

The Radical Communicators Network (RadComms) is a community of practice for emerging and experienced movement and communications workers. They build narrative power for a just and liberatory future.

About the Moderator

Charlene A. Carruthers (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer, and Black Studies PhD Candidate at Northwestern University. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her work interrogates Black governance, Black and Indigenous relationality, and Black feminist abolitionist geographies Charlene wrote, directed, and co-produced The Funnel, a short film, which received the Queer Black Voices Award at the 35th Annual aGLIFF Prism Film Festival She is author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.

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