What was I made for? Issue #22
Accidental Bonus Issue!! The intersection of purpose and entertainment.
The CH weekly on a Monday?!?! This edition we are kicking your week off instead of wrapping it up. Friday afternoon Substack crashed, and by the time it was back up, we'd moved on 🤷🏽♀️.
But we had some great updates to share and didn’t want you to miss out. So travel back in time with us to Friday afternoon….
Hi loves!!
We are home from Texas and still buzzing from our experience at SXSW. We had an incredible premiere of our series, Black Twitter: A People’s History. There is a long, long list of thank yous to be made and efforts to be recognized, but in the interest of your time, here are *some* of that list, all dolled up at the premiere:
Our Black Twitter marketing and press push is kicking off in the next few weeks in the run up to our official air date on May 9th on Hulu. Do you have brilliant ideas for how/where we promote the show? Do you personally curate Beyoncé, Kara Swisher, or some other legend’s personal watch lists? Let us know! It takes a village, babes.
Beyond Black Twitter, SXSW is such an exceptional convening of brilliance with an incredible vibe.
Culture House Immersive was in full effect on the ground: Mikhael was thrilled to join the new Immersive Experience Alliance and Agog at their launch. Mikhael, is also a Board Member of a DIFFERENT immersive experience organization...the Immersive Experience Institute. She is at the center of a universe-building universe! Mikhael was out in force to support Megan Elliott, the founder of the new IXA is also the Director of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts (Where Mikhael is an associate professor).
TRENDING
One of my weekend’s highlights was speaking on a Fast Company panel alongside writer/director/SuperSpecial founder Amy Aniobi and industry powerhouse/Lionsgate exec Charlotte Koh moderated by the brilliant and charming FC journalist Yasmin Gagne.
Of the many topics we covered, one feels important to lift up here. The pervasive and false idea that entertainment with a purpose inevitably sacrifices creativity/artistry/entertainment value for the sake of that substance. It seems especially potent when the project being considered for funding, marketed, reviewed, etc is by/for/about people of color, women, or other marginalized groups. That falsehood, ladders up to an even greater one, which is that entertainment absent a social purpose isn’t also making a political choice. Portraying a world absent our worldly problems is not opting for neutrality, it’s choosing to support the maintenance of the status quo, which friends, is a choice. And you can choose that. I want you to do be happy and do what you want. Let’s all just be clear that that’s whats happening.
Things got a bit spicy on the panel when I started to sound off on hugely powerful companies abdicating or denying their role in shaping society, meanwhile so many of the people who do care, say your work isn’t radical or forceful enough. Rae was in the front row, giving me the “Girl, Get. To. The. Point” look. Barbie monologue it was not.
If you read this newsletter my assumption is that you are keyed into the world around you, and look for opportunities to both have a great time and do some good. So I guess my point is this: Support the forms of entertainment that give you both joy, and purpose. It’s out there, and you deserve it. The more you support it, the more of it will get made, the better the world we will get to live in.
I’ve started a personal Substack where INSERT LINK where I let it rip more thoroughly opine on politics & pop culture, if that’s interesting to you, please subscribe! (It’s much more the views expressed here are my own type vibes). xo
OMG there’s still more!
IN THE CULTURE
The power of popular culture to introduce new concepts to a mass audience in ways few other methods can is why we are so obsessed with it, and the people who harness it. I was excited a few weeks ago to see a new tool from our story consultant friends at Good Energy. A Bechdel test for climate called the Climate Reality Check.
(if you aren’t familiar with it, read up here: Bechdel-Wallace Test)
the Bechdel Wallace climate test asks two questions to determine if you pass. One: It in someway acknowledges that climate change exists, and a character knows it. We love clever intersections between non-profit/impact worlds and entertainment.
BOOK CLUB
Staying on the theme of making the world a better place, and because you demanded it we are going to start offering book recommendations. Lots of friends and people we admire have up and coming books and just how we recommend shows we love we know reading this books (or at least buying them to support writers) is guaranteed to make you a better person. And thats why were all here, isn’t it?
So first up, our inaugural Culture House Book Club official selection is:
What If We Get It Right: Visions of climate futures by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
ABOUT WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?
Our climate future is not yet written. What if we act as if we love the future?
Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures.
Provocative and Joyous, put that on some Culture House Merch ASAP. Pre-order Ayana’s book here or ideally from your local bookstore!!
Every day is earth day here at Culture House.
We are still working on our pacing, but you can expect to hear about a new genius writer every month or so. Do YOU have a book or a book recommendation? Email Esme@culture.house
Last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday Phoebe Bourke!!!! As loyal readers/followers know Phoebe is an apple in the collective eye of Culture House. A very On Brand Pisces, comedy genius, and true friend, Phoebe is also Irish. So if you celebrate St. Patrick’s day this weekend, think of your best Irish mate, Phoebe Bourke. In one short week we will be welcoming Phoebe to America as she joins the Culture House table at the Kennedy Center’s annual Mark Twain prize for Comedy happening in DC and this year, honoring Kevin Hart. More on that next week!
We made it to the end. Thanks for reading, it means the world to us.
xoxo
Carri, Rae & Nicole
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