Event Production Client Stories

Building an inclusive, anti-racist democracy requires a strong coalition of people using the power of narrative to change our expectations. Blueprint NC is leading the way. Blueprint is a network of more than fifty organizations across North Carolina creating a shared vision that redefines civic engagement and brings racial equity to the forefront of public policy matters. Blueprint partners work on a range of issues, all through the lens of racial equity. From immigrant rights and environmental justice to healthcare policy, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and criminal justice reform, we are building the governing power of historically disenfranchised people in the service of our democracy.

Broccoli City Festival was created by native North Carolinians Marcus Allen and Brandon McEachern as a multifaceted festival involving food, wellness, environmental justice, and social health education. Broccoli City creates a culture that celebrates and rewards people who are “getting active” and doing the work to make our communities healthier. The 2017 Broccoli City Festival took place near the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, and brought together eighteen hip-hop acts including 21 Savage, Rae Sremmurd, Lil’ Yachty, and Solange. 

On August 24, 2004, MoveOn PAC held a concert that marked ten weeks of activism leading up to the presidential election. The event was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and performers included The Roots, Moby, Natalie Merchant, and Perry Farrell. The evening featured the “Bush in 30 Seconds” television ad campaign showcasing the work of notable American film directors and actors including Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Rob Reiner, and others. Janeane Garofalo hosted the evening. Silver Muse Productions managed talent for the show.

Set in the early 1980s, The Cherokee Word for Water is a feature-length motion picture inspired by the true story of the struggle to bring running water to the rural, full-blood Cherokee community of Bell, Oklahoma.  By using the Cherokee concept of gadugi – working together to solve a problem – the success of the Bell waterline sparked a movement of similar self-help projects across Indian country that continues to this day.  The movie is told from the perspective of Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and Charlie Soap, a full-blood Cherokee organizer and community advocate.

“Wilma worked for decades to improve the quality of life for Indian people in this country,” says Charlie Soap, who became Mankiller's husband in 1986 and remained her community development partner for more than thirty years. “She cared deeply that Native and non-Native people see the positive side of our communities and wanted to leave a legacy that shows the resilience of Indian people.”    

The film was shot on location in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Climb Against the Odds –Mt. Fuji 2000, a mountain climb of Japan’s Mt. Fuji by breast cancer survivors from the US and Japan, was sponsored by the Breast Cancer Fund.  The team reached the summit of Mt. Fuji on August 22, 2000 and returned home with several hundred hits in newspapers in Japan and the US.  Additionally, nearly one million dollars was raised to support the work of BCF, whose mission is to uncover and eliminate the environmental causes of breast cancer.

After concert promoters resisted including more than one female performer on a bill, Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan launched the Lilith Fair tour in 1997. Over the next three summers, Lilith Fair played to sold-out audiences across the US and Canada, and featured performers such as Sheryl Crow, Sinead O'Connor and The Pretenders.  At each show, Lilith invited organizations like Lifebeat, RAINN, Planned Parenthood, PETA and the Breast Cancer Fund to educate attendees about their programs.  Working with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Lilith Fair also donated $1 from the sale of each ticket to a local women's domestic violence shelter.  In 1999, Lilith showcased Mosaic, a hands-on art project benefiting dozens of art centers across the United States.

On September 24, 2005, The New Yorker hosted Parting the Waters, an evening of words and music from New Orleans and the Delta to benefit Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The event featured 22 acts including readings and performances by: Buckwheat Zydeco, Patricia Clarkson, Elvis Costello, Willem Dafoe, David Byrne and the Les Miserables Brass Band, Eddy Davis and His New Orleans Jazz Band featuring Woody Allen, Richard Ford, Gary Louris and Mark Olson from the Jayhawks, Leigh (Little Queenie) Harris, Terrence Howard, Kevin Kline, Audra McDonald, Toni Morrison, Mary-Louise Parker, Queen Ida and Her Zydeco Band, the ReBirth Brass Band, Lou Reed, Allen Toussaint, Calvin Trillin, and Walter Wolfman Washington and the Roadmasters. With matching donations from Condé Nast Publications, Inc., the event raised nearly $250,000 for the Red Cross.

Amplify Resonance invited me to help develop this hybrid event in the spring of 2023. The event was sponsored by the National Partnership for Women and Families and featured a keynote address by The Honorable Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, followed by a panel discussion on innovative approaches to improving maternal health. The National Partnership's Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, VP of Health Justice, moderated the event, with remarks by Jocelyn Frye, President.

Young People For (YP4), a program of People For the American Way Foundation, is a long-term leadership development initiative that identifies, engages, and empowers the newest generation of progressive leaders. The 2005 National Young People For Summit in Washington, DC opened with “Rhyme and Reason,” an event featuring some of the nation’s top slam poets, including noted poets Rich Nichols, Beau Sia, Steve Connell and Sekou (tha misfit) Andrews.  

For 738 days, Julia Butterfly Hill lived in the canopy of an ancient redwood tree in Humboldt County, CA, to help make the world aware of the plight of ancient forests.  Her autobiographical account of this experience, The Legacy of Luna, has been published in several languages worldwide.  Julia went on to host a groundbreaking music and activism festival in San Francisco called We the Planet, where performers included Bonnie Raitt, Tracey Chapman, Alanis Morissette, The Roots, The Coup, Michelle Shocked and many others.