Building narrative power for social justice: interview with Shanelle Matthews

Abstract

Talking about shifting narratives has become almost commonplace in the field of communication for rights. But what does this mean and how can it really be in the service of social justice? For Shanelle Mathews, it is imperative that social movements produce “narrative power”, so that they can “expand the collective perception of what is socially, economically and politically possible”. The interviewee is an activist, communicator and teacher, dedicated to collaborating with social justice activists, organizations and campaigns to inspire action and build narrative power. She is the communications director for the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), founder of the Radical Communicators Network, and a faculty member at The New School, a university located in New York. Her ideas bring some important clues to face the communicational challenges of progressive social movements, towards the building of “a robust narrative scaffolding for a more liberatory future”.