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APRBLEM is a cause-led communications firm that harnesses the power of storytelling to further the missions of changemaking collectives, organizations, and individuals. We connect people across geographies and identity groups with the intent of building community and raising awareness around existing problems and their corresponding solutions.
"Nothing about us without us"
Widely used by organizations by and for people with disabilities in the critique of ableist structures that continuously overlook their first-hand accounts and perspectives, these words ring true for those of all marginalized groups as they are left out of conversations and spoken for rather than spoken to. At APRBLEM, we provide opportunities for both the leadership as well as those served by organizations an opportunity to tell their stories in their own words.
OUR SERVICES:
Storytelling
We help you and your organization tell the stories that need to be told in the manner that feels best for all parties involved.
Interviews
Photography
Creative Direction
Copywriting
"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies of me and eaten alive."
Audre Lorde
Experiential Production
Our commitment to collaborative storytelling extends into the experiences that we curate with our partners. When we create inclusive and accessible spaces both with and for those on the margins, it is an exercise in world-building by us, for us. That said, we infuse intention into every aspect of the space and process to create a meaningful and memorable experience for co-creators and visitors alike.
Design
Sourcing
Programming
Content Strategy
"The place where we [you] belong will not exist until we create it."
James Baldwin
Our Values
Memory/Preservation
"Hope is essential to any political struggle for any radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair."
bell hooks
Authenticity
Repurposing
Connection
Community
Consciousness-raising
APRBLEM was born from a place of hopelessness. Both because of and in spite of this, the word was repurposed to encapsulate a spirit of resilience, self-definition, and advocacy. It is meant to empower those who have been deemed "a problem." That said, we are guided by spirit of folks who turned what was meant to demean and destroy into useful energy, and found ways to survive by building community and connecting to themselves and their inner knowing in spite of unfavorable circumstances.
We need to remember them. Remembering is a source of hope in the darkest of times and despite the grimness of the present, and (predicted) future, we need to look back and equip ourselves with what has been overlooked, covered, and hidden to forge a path toward a more just and connected world. And to do so, we must acknowledge that the future is shaped by those fueled by radical belief; it is shaped by those who are "willing to be willful and to turn a diagnosis into an act of self description" (Ahmed, 2017). In the words of Civil Rights activist John Lewis, the future is dependent on those committed to making "good, necessary trouble." And we believe storytelling is apart of that act.
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