Building narrative power has always been a critical strategy in creating just and equitable policies, systems, and institutions. Stories, messages, and narratives have proven effective tools for positive change in times of crisis. Just look back at pivotal moments in our movement’s history: the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, or the Black Lives Matter movement. At the center of these important events are powerful narrative strategies that use campaigns, messages, speeches, poetry, stories, protest signs, symbols, and visuals to shift hearts and minds toward change. 

Today, the threats to democracy, equity, and racial justice are growing at an alarming rate. Authoritarianism and systemic racism continue to harm Black and brown folks, immigrants, and trans people. Our economic, health care, education, and justice systems are being gutted from the inside while billion-dollar corporations grow their wealth. This current political environment is deeply rooted in narratives of inequity and racism. Harmful narratives of division, isolation, individualism, and scarcity dominate popular media and conversations and undergird the unjust status quo we have today. 

The moment to build narrative power is now. It is not enough that we make our narratives the dominant narratives. We need narrative power that will shift institutional, policy, and systemic change towards equity and justice. Building narrative power means effectively using our stories, messages, communications, and narratives to move people, organizations, and communities towards solidarity for systemic racial justice.

When we build narrative power, we offer an actionable vision of a just, multiracial world that is so irresistible that it fosters greater solidarity across all our movements.

WHO IS THIS WEBINAR FOR: This webinar series is for folks part of the bigger narrative ecosystem: communicators, storytellers, narrative strategists, equity officers, government and community leaders, and racial justice advocates who want to learn more about strategies to build narrative power in this time of crisis and beyond. This series is for those working to build solidarity and change inequitable systems to become just using narrative interventions and strategies. 

GOALS OF THE WEBINAR SERIES: 

The goals of this webinar series are

1. To build a shared understanding of the role of narrative power in addressing systemic inequities and barriers and gain a foundation for developing your own narrative strategy.
2. To gain an understanding of our existing narrative infrastructure – the relationships and resources available – and what is still needed in order to continue to build and sustain narrative power for long term systemic change. 
3. To explore what narrative strategy looks like in practice across sectors and issue areas.
4. To build a space for peer learning with others who are working to advance justice and solidarity using narrative interventions and strategies. 

Registrants will be able to attend all four sessions live below and receive access to the webinar recordings and any tools or presentations shared during the sessions.

Webinar 1: How to Build Narrative Power for Systems and Culture Change (May 7, 2026)

This session will help attendees sharpen their knowledge and capacity to design narrative interventions that move people and organizations towards systemic change. This session will support attendees in the use of tools and frameworks to help align our messages and stories with our values and vision of a just world to empower us to lead a more coordinated, solidarity-driven movement. We will also dig into some examples of effective narrative change interventions that attendees can learn from. 

Webinar 2: Strategies and Challenges to Building Narrative Power in Times, including immigration, government, health, and economic mobility of Crisis (May 14, 2026)

What narratives have been effective in advancing solidarity and equity? What narrative interventions and strategies do we need to focus on at this moment of rising authoritarianism? In this session, attendees will hear from narrative experts – strategists, capacity builders, researchers, and funders who are building tools, knowledge, and resources important to the field. We will explore challenges in the field of narrative power building, best practices and strategies, and opportunities for collaboration. 

Webinar 3: Narrative in the Wild: Exploring Narrative Interventions and Power-Building  ( May 21, 2026)

By now, we know building narrative power calls on us to lead with values and vision. But what does that look like in practice? How can we activate our vision and values for our audiences via our narrative and cultural interventions? In this session, we’ll hear from a panel of artists, organizers, government employees, and racial justice leaders who are implementing narrative strategies in critical issue areas, including immigration, government, health, and economic mobility. Attendees will emerge with inspiration and concrete examples they can use to inform the development of their own narrative strategies – regardless of issue area or sector. 

Session 4: Narrative Strategies Clinic ( May 28, 2026)

This is a facilitated coaching and peer-learning space for attendees who want to workshop their narrative interventions with the Race Forward team and peers in the field. We will also be sharing a prototype tool developed in our Weavers’ Lab that can be useful to those who are working on narrative projects.