About

Media is the most popular art form in the U.S. and critical to how we understand ourselves as a culture, but the largest media companies do not accurately represent the country or the city of Chicago. It is no coincidence that the years preceding the exponential rise of racism, sexism, and other forms of hate in the the last decade were a time when television series and films were less diverse and storytellers less representative of our country.

Local media nonprofits are critical to building a sustainable and equitable diverse media system. Yet, in 2020, a number of white-led Chicago media nonprofits were exposed for creating hostile environments for people of color. This revealed how critical it is to support BIPOC-led organizations whose leadership identifies with their communities and whose artists have found success more quickly and with less trauma.

Chicago is uniquely positioned to innovate a new model for cultural transformation, as home to thriving organizations supporting the entire supply chain for storytelling. Each organization in the Chicago Media Coalition plays a critical role in cultivating the local media ecosystem:

• Development, supporting the cultivating of new stories and storytellers;

• Production, supporting storytellers in making those stories a reality;

• Distribution, supporting the release of completed stories;

• Engagement, hosting events to showcase stories in communities; and,

• Research, cultivating knowledge of how stories and storytellers created impact