Jordan Brand is amplifying Black storytelling with StoryCorps’ ‘Brightness in Black’

Jordan Brand partners with StoryCorps to showcase the nuance, complexity, and richness of the Black experience.

Michael Jordan’s Jordan Brand is expanding its commitment to the Black community with its latest partnership with StoryCorps. Combining Jordan’s financial resources and StoryCorps’ intentional storytelling format, the “Brightness in Black” collaboration is a three-year initiative that works to collect and share the diverse stories within the Black experience while challenging the stereotypical, pervasive narratives often seen. 

For 20 years, the nonprofit organization has traveled across the country collecting stories from everyday people. In an interview with theGrio, StoryCorps President Sandra Clark explained the organization’s focus on giving people a platform to tell their own stories in their own voices. In addition to living on StoryCorps’ platforms, these stories are archived in the Library of Congress. 

“[StoryCorps] allows people just to create a legacy that 100 years from now, people can hear, hear these stories and understand both their family members or their friends, but also, you know what was happening in that period in our country and culturally,” she told theGrio. 

“The Jordan Brand’s commitment to the Black community is infinite — central to who we are as a brand,” said Jordan Brand President Sarah Mensah in a press release. “We are incredibly proud to be a part of the work StoryCorps is driving with Brightness in Black, ensuring that the voices and stories of the Black community remain a part of our collective history.

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Turning the mic over to the Black communities, Brightness in Black encourages Black people around the country to challenge and reclaim the often one-dimensional and over-simplified narratives that are regularly told, by sharing their personal stories of triumph, challenges, resilience, and gratitude.

Understanding that the Black experience is not monolithic and varies from region to region, StoryCorps and Jordan Brand are committed to traveling to various locations nationwide to capture these stories. Working in two “Anchor Communities” at a time, Brightness in Black will work with local media and community organizations to document and distribute the stories of these Black communities and host events in hopes of building these cities’ capacity to sustain narrative change work long-term. This year, Brightness in Black will focus its work in Atlanta and Philadelphia, with the other four anchor cities to be announced. 

“It takes time to build relationships,” Clark added. “So we really wanted to, you know, have the time to understand the communities in which we were working, to really build the relationships in the right kind of way, as well as to amplify the work that our community partners are doing. We didn’t want to swoop in and swoop out.” 

To assist in this work, StoryCorps and Jordan Brand have launched a six-month paid fellowship program for rising junior and senior students attending HBCUs or community colleges within the program’s Anchor Community regions. Each year, the organization will select six fellows who will play a vital role in bringing the mission of Brightness in Black to life, serving as interview facilitators and participating in community learning workshops. With plans to host pop-ups beyond this year’s Anchor Communities, Clark emphasized that there are various ways to participate in Brightness in Black. In addition to partnering with Black media outlets for national distribution efforts, Brightness in Black invites people to record and share their stories at home through the StoryCorps app. 

“This is all about, you know, everyday people sharing their stories. And often, people who are not are unseen, right, unheard, and rarely asked. And I think that’s what really stands out the most,” Clark concluded. “These are stories that defy stereotype. These are stories where nobody’s trying to be famous. When we think about everything on our phones, we think we’re capturing stories all day long [through] images [and videos], and they all add up to something. But there’s something very, very different when you are intentionally sitting with someone else and sharing something that is so ordinary but extraordinary.”

Haniyah Philogene is a multimedia storyteller and Lifestyle writer for theGrio covering all things culture. With a passion for digital media, she goes above and beyond to find new ways to tell and share stories.

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