Happy One-Year to Stories and Our Contributor Program! [CASE STUDY]

BTS Updates
Written By Better to Speak

‘Stories’ is Better to Speak’s editorial platform to shift the narrative of the voices discussing important sociopolitical issues, and create a living collection of oral histories that include personal narratives in the Black community that center or are documented by young Black folks.

At the end of 2021, we launched Stories – and specifically our contributing writer program – with the support of a grant from Press On’s Southern Movement Media fund. 

It’s officially been one year since we published our first batch of contributed articles, and we want to start by saying thank you to each and every one of our writers who have added so much life to our platform – from your insightful and thoughtful ideas to your partnership in trusting us with your words!

Additionally, thank you to all of our supporters who continue to affirm our voices and stories by reading, sharing and engaging with our content, and by donating to help us sustain this important work.

We can't wait to see where this part of our journey takes us next! 

Keep reading to learn more about the milestones we've reached so far, and how you can stay connected to support writing opportunities for young Black folks!

We’re honored to have grown our contributor network to over 80 young Black writers across the Diaspora. 

ICYMI: Our contributor network is essentially an email list that receives monthly email reminders about deadlines for our 2023 editorial calendar, which may also include any calls for timely/breaking pieces. But this network is also our primary community and focus for co-creating Better to Speak’s editorial voice.

These voices and perspectives have added so much nuance to the stories we are able to share on this platform. We’re excited to continue working with our existing writers, welcoming new folks, and exploring how to create more opportunities for our community!

To learn more and join the network – visit this central landing page for our writers!

We collaborated with our contributors to publish 21 Stories in 2022.

Reader Favorites included…

These ideals have sunk their roots deep into the hearts, minds and souls of both victims and perpetrators, forming a modern society ingrained with the trials and tribulations of racism, injustice, bigotry, negative stereotypes and cultural appropriation.”

  • The Black Woman’s Path to Emotional Healing (Written by Edisana Stephen)

    • “Being a powerful Black woman isn't always simple. Every day, the world puts us to the test at work, at home, and on the street. We're taught to keep our heads up, wipe our tears away, and keep going when we're hurt, disappointed, or lost. We are pressured by society to be everything to everyone. We pour ourselves out all the time and rarely allow ourselves to receive the care we require.”

  • Teachers Do More Than Teach - They Inspire (Written by Kara Little)

    • “Teachers are more than their lesson plans. They bring life into their lessons, they support all of their students in a different and unique way, catering to their learning styles. For some of us at some point, our teachers were all we had...Any teachers reading this now who may feel like they’re not appreciated, not valued – you are.”

The Dream Team needs your help to continue amplifying the voices and stories of Black youth and young adults through our contributing writer program. Can you contribute to support?

We’re actively working on what’s next.

We plan to continue improving our editorial process with the contributing writer experience front of mind – starting with the launch of this new web page that has all the info you need to pitch and submit work to our platform.

We are also working to continue refining our editorial voice to make Better to Speak a go-to source for storytelling by and for Black youth and young adults. This means uplifting the voices and stories of Black youth and young adults across multimedia content including written articles, audio and video, and digital (social media, SMS and email).

How to Support Better to Speak and Our Writers

As Better to Speak’s primary offering, Stories is essential to our mission of amplifying Black youth and young adult voices. Beyond just publishing content, our vision is to build a platform and digital community that houses fresh and imaginative perspectives of Black folks 18-30, creates transformative opportunites for young and emerging Black writers and offers an alternative to Black media for our community at large: one that centers young Black voices on the issues that matter. Here’s where we need support:

Donate

To continue this work, we need investment from our community and industry to financially support our ability to publish articles. If you’re able to contribute to support, donate here.

Read, Share + Engage

We want to be the go-to platform for sociopolitical commentary and personal essays from young Black writers. Reading, sharing, and engaging in dialogue about the topics discussed in our articles helps us to improve our content, tailor it to our readers’ interests, and ensure that Stories reflects a diverse range of experiences and perspectives.

Follow us on social media to stay up to date on new articles, and join the conversation to let us know what you learned, found interesting, or even to call us in to critique or push the topic further. 

You can find us on the following social platforms:

Better to Speak
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