This Fall, BE HEARD!
by Leslie Fields-Cruz
Happy Fall! If you read last week’s Weekly Dispatch by my colleague Denise Greene, you know that we are in the midst of our latest BE HEARD social media campaign, #ShopLikeNana. Stream it on our TikTok and Instagram channels. You’ll also find it on our YouTube and our website.
#ShopLikeNana aims to build awareness about the impact of fast fashion on the environment and on Black communities. By offering sustainable fashion alternatives, the campaign shows that reducing those detrimental impacts can be fun and economical. What differentiates this year’s BE HEARD from earlier campaigns is its heavy emphasis on collaboration and audience engagement.
For #ShopLikeNana, we commissioned Director Sophia Clark and Producer Inuka Bacote-Capiga to create a social media campaign on the topic of sustainable fashion — featuring comedian Katrina Davis. Read more about how and why they accepted our challenge in this month’s newsletter.
Expanding Our Influence
Sophia and Inuka also invited three social media personalities — Imani Barbarin, Bailey Bass and Summer Dean — to create posts demonstrating their sustainable fashion practices. To capture a series of conversations with everyday people, our Social Media Manager Kat Walsh and Social Change Strategist Sean A. Watkins hit the streets asking folks how and why they #ShopLikeNana. And now, it’s your turn to BE HEARD! We invite people across the social media landscape to post content outlining their own adventures with sustainable fashion. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Our Anthem Award-winning BE HEARD series launched in 2020 to amplify Black voices on topics that matter to and impact our communities. We thank Paramount+ for the grant that made #ShopLikeNana possible. Every little act of sustainable living counts in the movement to ensure that blue skies, fresh water and habitable land remain part of our children’s future, not just a part of Nana’s past.
— Fields-Cruz is the executive director of Black Public Media
