THE AIEJ PROJECTS
Accra, London, New York
We use storytelling as a tool and a strategy towards structural change.
With Emotional Justice, we define storytelling as ‘contemporary lived experience within a global historical context centering race and gender.’
NOVEMBER 2020 – MARCH 2023
THE BLACK FRONTLINE
USA, UK, GHANA
The Black Frontline is the largest oral history project of global Black doctors and nurses. It is an Emotional Justice project that engages black digital humanities. Co-directed with Dr. Kim Gallon, COVID Black, The AIEJ leads a global team across the US, the UK and Ghana. We gathered more than 300 stories as part of the first draft of COVID that centers the lived experience and the lens of global Black healthcare workers. The Black Frontline project centers storytelling as part of our strategy to shape a future healthcare sector of equity and empathy.
The Black Frontline’s institutional home is Department of Africana Studies, Brown University, and was funded by The Skoll Foundation and Mellon Foundation,
It will be launched on the third anniversary of COVID 19’s entry into our lives, March 2023.
To listen to the stories, access the User Guide and resources go to: www.theblackfrontline.org.
the 1952 project™
On Empire & Colonialism
Loss : Legacy : Grief : Healing
Africa: The Caribbean: England
2022-2024
'the 1952 project' identifies, explores, examines and interrogates the toll of Empire and Colonialism on who we – Black and white – became, and how that becoming shapes how we – Black and white - see ourselves and each other, how that seeing shapes an identity – a national, cultural, and personal identity. The 1952 project's focus will be Africa, the Caribbean and England. The project is named for the year the Queen's reign began. Her death in September 2022 marks the end of her reign, and offers crucial space to embark on this racial healing project.
The 1952 project has four themes: Loss, Legacy, Grief, Healing. The project's aim is to center the narrative of the colonized, and their descendants, name the loss, legacy, grief of Empire and Colonialism, for the purpose of beginning an emotional reckoning, and to begin a racial healing. The death of the Queen ignited wall to wall coverage, and a vicious backlash against those who rejected privileging the Queen and her white family’s narrative over that of the colonized and their descendants’ narrative. While Colonialism and Empire has fallen, the legacy remains – one major element of that legacy is the emotional connection that centers a language of whiteness. The emotional collapse of Empire and Colonialism severs this connection, centralizes the colonized and their descendants, and initiates our healing, by articulating the truth of this legacy and its deadly lie of white supremacy that permeates Africa, the Caribbean and England.
The wall to wall coverage whitewashes history, disappears Colonialism’s brutality, absolves itself, and diminishes the history and lived experience of the colonized, and their descendants. Healing requires undoing harm, undoing harm requires naming, identifying legacy, toll, and truth of those colonized and their descendants.
The 1952 Project is created to become an educational tool, an Emotional Justice resource to expand knowledge and understanding about Empire and Colonialism via a narrative that decenters whiteness.. It will be mixed media: Podcast, Essays, Theatre and Music. It is in partnership with The Radical Books Collective and will feature the work, creativity, stories of Educators, Scholars, Journalists, Artists, Musicians, and Writers. The 1952 Project is inspired by The 1619 Project by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones.
#the1952project
2023 – 2028
THE EMOTIONAL JUSTICE WORLDWIDE L.A.B.
5-year global 3-part project
To shape future global changemakers, we must make better citizens that can more peacefully co-exist in order to thrive. Citizenship is about belonging, and in this time belonging is a global battlefield. To create global changemakers we need to reimagine belonging, we need healing, and to learn to co-exist. That is our work. This project is a global resource to help us do that work. It is a call to action with the fierce urgency of now.
What makes a citizen? What does it mean to become a citizen, to build community, to shape your nation? One national symbol of citizenship is a nation’s Oath or Pledge of Allegiance. It tells a story of citizenship, belonging, humanity and power. ‘The Emotional Justice Worldwide L.A.B’ treats this national symbol of citizenship and identity as a historical site, as a map that gives us access to and guides us into a world of people, power and world-changing events. This project engages students, artists and thought-leaders to reimagine citizenship by rewriting a nation’s Oath/Pledge of Allegiance in a contemporary time to imagine a future that is inclusive, and deals with healing harm while heeding history. It invites students to take the reins in imagining their future, and helps them see themselves as co-creating agents of change and as shapers of the next generation of global citizens.
Each L.A.B uses two foundational texts. They are: the nation’s Pledge of Allegiance or National Pledge, and the book: ‘EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: a roadmap for racial healing’. The project takes a modular approach. Each module can also stand alone, giving an institution the choice to engage all three, or choose the module they feel best fits their institution. The three modules are designed to take place over the course of one semester. The project format is a LAB – a place of action, learning, and lessons. In this project, we have defined LAB as L.A.B. – for ‘Legacy And Building’ The EJ Worldwide L.A.B. is a semester long project done in partnership with a university, or institution of tertiary education.
The L.A.B. features:-
-
Teaching - Shaping Future Global Change-Maker Citizens which practices civic engagement to shape future global changemaker citizens
-
Theatre - The Healing Dialogues designed to foster healing dialogue
-
Thought Leadership - Healing Harm while Heeding History aimed at developing inclusive narratives and challenging normalized harmful practices
The EJ Lab engages the following areas:-
-
Civic Engagement
-
Creating Changemakers
-
Strengthening Participatory Democracy
-
Developing Inclusive Practices
-
Shaping Narrative
-
Healing Harm
Within academic institutions it would engage a range of subjects:-
-
History
-
Social Sciences
-
Gender
-
Africana Studies
-
African-American History
-
Political Science
-
Sociology
-
Communications
This project, based on the book ‘Emotional Justice: a roadmap for racial healing’ is a visionary tool of dialogue, education and healing focused on civic engagement, and creating future changemakers.
BROTHERHOODS of BECOMING™
Haunted and Hunted: An Arts Education Project
US & UK
2022 - 2032
‘Brotherhoods of Becoming: Haunted & Hunted’ is an arts education project on masculinity, emotionality, humanity and healing. It is a project of monologues followed by dialogue. It develops creative space to explore how Black men, teenagers and young men are haunted by the ways society hunts and targets them, their bodies, and their behaviors. This project is designed to encourage and support Black men to expand their emotional vocabulary, and do their emotional work as part of their healing practice using the racial healing roadmap, Emotional Justice. This project is based on the book: ‘Haunted & Hunted: Emotional Justice for Black men’ by The AIEJ’s CEO, Esther A. Armah.
*********************************************************************************
BLACK MASCULINITY
On Love, Legacy, Lived Experience, Change and Healing
US & GHANA
2018 - present
Emotional Justice has an annual global Black masculinity project in Ghana and the US focusing on shifting narratives on masculinity, centering vulnerability and engaging Black men to do the emotional work of giving voice to harmful behaviors that shape society.
Each year in November, The AIEJ does a project with Black men exploring themes of power, consent, vulnerability, leadership, sex, pain and trauma as part of the Emotional Justice roadmap for racial healing for Black men.
2022 GHANA
WITNESS
50 Men : 50 Stories : 50 Interviews
November 19th 2022
Fifty men from across Greater Accra and Takoradi in the Western Region share, reveal and highlight what violence they witnessed by men towards women, and how what they witnessed shaped and impacted them as men. The findings from the powerful and moving exchanges are for WITNESS, a masculinity project for 2022’s International Men Day, a global annual event celebrated in 70 countries around the world.
With WITNESS, we asked each man the same set of specific, focused questions about what violence they saw, their age when they witnessed that violence, who intervened, why they did not intervene, and how what they witnessed shaped their ideas of masculinity, how they saw other men, how it impacted them, and how they think it impacted women.
The partner organizationsfor the oral history gathering was Life Relief Foundation in Takoradi and for the presentation of the project findings via visual graphics and text, Viz 4 Gender.
-
2022 - Ghana
-
2021 - Ghana
-
2020 - USA
-
2019 - Ghana
-
2018 - Ghana
*********************************************************************************
2021 GHANA
SEX & THE AFRICAN MAN
CONSENT, CULTURE, PATRIARCHY, PLEASURE
November 19th 2021
The AIEJ’s annual International Men’s Day project is focused on shaping and shifting narratives on Black masculinity, inviting global Black men to center vulnerability, explore how they learned about power, and what they must unlearn to change masculinity narratives that perpetuate violence.
In 2021, our project spoke with Ghanaian-Romanian musician and activist Wanlov The Kubolor; and Patrick Stephenson, Economist and Broadcaster on how they learned about consent, the silence among men, sex, women’s bodies, and the power of permission.
*********************************************************************************
2020 USA
Emotional Justice 4 Black Men – Vision and Vulnerability
November 19th 2020 International Men’s Day.
In Emotional Justice 4 Black men we explore the toll of the trauma on Black men in America.
*********************************************************************************
2019 GHANA
#IAmUNLEARNING
#IAmUNLEARNING is a groundbreaking project on African manhood and masculinity in Ghana. This multimedia project engages International Men’s Day November 19th, to engage men to UNLEARN SILENCE, REIMAGINE POWER, RECKON WITH AGGRESSION, as part of the movement to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence in Ghana. The project is NATIONAL, REGIONAL and LOCAL. It works to shift national dialogue on African masculinity, engage community leaders on the ground, and bring the stories of survivors into community.
The #IAmUNLEARNING project is in partnership with Oxford International, The Safe Space Foundation, White Ribbon Ghana and EAA Media Productions.
*********************************************************************************
2021 LONDON
10th Annual International Conference on Emotional Intelligence
18th -19th March 2021
London
UK
The 10th Annual International Conference on Emotional Intelligence will be brought to the world by The Society of Emotional Intelligence International: UK & EU (SoEI Int'l UK & EU) in March 2021. This is the first time this international conference, which is normally held every two years in Florida, USA, will make its debut here in London, England. AIEJ is honoured to partner with the Society of Emotional Intelligence International: UK and Europe for this Conference. AIEJ will present ‘The Inclusion of Illusion: who pays, who profits?’. This is AIEJ’s Diversity and Inclusion visionary Emotional Justice work in the UK.
For more information on how you can attend the conference, become a sponsor or support and be part of this great opportunity:- www.soeiuk.org.uk
Jacqueline A. Hinds MA (HRD) CEIC MCIPD
Founder & CEO: Society of Emotional Intelligence: UK & Europe
Jacqueline Hinds is a Board Member & International Liaison for the ‘Society of Emotional Intelligence International, USA’, and Founder of ‘Wilson Hinds Consulting Ltd’ providing a bespoke service tailored specifically for her clients’ needs. Jacqueline is a Certified Emotional Intelligence Coach & Leadership Consultant, with over 25 years of knowledge, skills and expertise working within key corporate, public sector and healthcare organisations. And she is the author of ‘Journey to Empowerment: Tackling the Bullies Within.’
*********************************************************************************
2019 NEW YORK
the STAYED and the STOLEN
Black Portraitures [V]: Memory and the Archive - Past, Present, Future
New York University
'the STAYED and the STOLEN' is a multidisciplinary project exploring the relationship between Africans on the Continent and in the Diaspora with African-Americas and Black people in the Diaspora via mixed media, video, podcast, and panel.
Part I: the STAYED and the STOLEN video project featured Dr. Joan Morgan and Dr. Treva B. Lindsey. It was presented at Black Portraitures [V] followed by a panel featuring Dr. Joan Morgan.
*********************************************************************************
2016 NEW YORK
The Emotional Justice Summit
This is an annual summit that focuses on a targeted demographic for reimagining our healing, developing our emotional literacy in order to lead, love, build, engage and organize more sustainably and impactfully.
The 2016 Summit featured: Dr Brittney Cooper, Joan Morgan, asha Bandele.
MULTI MEDIA PROJECTS & SUMMITS
#IAmBecomingGH: Ghana 2019
Inspired by USA Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s best-selling book ‘BECOMING’, we organized an event ‘theLword’: and gathered women in Ghana from myriad sectors to reimagine leadership. From there, we created this video project, in answer to Michelle Obama’s call to women globally: WHO ARE YOU BECOMING?
African Women in Media Conference: KENYA 2019
EAA Media Productions was a Panelist on the ‘From #MeToo to #TimesUpGH Sexual Harassment & Global Movements’ panel featuring journalists and organizations from Kenya, America, Ghana and Tanzania. #AWiM19 partners with The African Union to hold an annual conference bringing together African women in media.
*********************************************************************************
#16DaysOfActivism : Africa’s Media Houses, 2019
#TimesUpAfriMedia was the multi-media campaign led by EAA Media Productions in partnership with collectives, coalitions, journalists in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania for the annual United Nations #16DaysOfActivism focused on gender-based violence. The campaign focus: call out sexual harassment in Africa’s media houses, highlight the impact of sexual harassment on the industry, on progress, and on reporting.
EAA Media Productions partnered with Media Council of Kenya, Association of Women in Media Kenya (AMWiK); Biola Alabi Media Nigeria; African Women in Media (AWiM); and Tanzania Women in Media and Public Relations Professionals (TWMPR).
*********************************************************************************
International Day of the GIRLCHILD: Ghana 2017
‘state of the ZONGO MUSLIM GIRL CHILD in EDUCATION’ is the 90 minute live, radio discussion special organized and produced by EAA Media Productions for the UN’s International Day of the Girl Child on 11th October. It aired on Starr FM103.5, Accra.
It featured a panel of Muslim young women aged 18 – 30 discussing the challenges, influences, issues, barriers to Education in their Community. In Ghana, Zongo Muslim Girls and women are the marginalized of the marginalized.
*********************************************************************************
STORIES, STANDARDS, SEX - THE MEDIA SUMMIT : Ghana 2016 & 2017
reimagine: stories, standards, sex' is the two-year Media Summit created by EAA Media Productions, and held at Webster University. This industry-wide, interactive, debut media summit had a specific focus on gender and the reporting of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) by the industry, as well as sexual harassment within the industry. Panelists and attendees were Journalists (TV, Radio, Online, Print), Editors, Camerapersons, Producers, Communications Students, Hosts, and Media Communications faculty.
2016: Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV): Reporting It, Experiencing It, Naming and Narrative
2017: Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV): The Power and Peril of Online Reporting
*********************************************************************************
International Day of Action Against Illicit Drug Taking : Ghana, 2017
Ghana Drug Reform Policy was explored for the June 2017 International Day of Action Against Illicit Drug Taking. EAA Media Productions led a global team that featured West Africa Drug Policy Network; West African Civil Society Institute, Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA) and produced a multi-media project of radio discussions, visual graphics and in print articles.
EAA Media Productions produced 5 x 1 HOUR specials on Drug Reform Policy in Ghana.
Executive Producer: EAA Media Productions
Host: Moro Awudu
*********************************************************************************
#finePRINTfriday : Ghana, 2017 to 2018
This one-year visual conversation project was a celebration and discussion of African print, fabric as identity, heritage, history, status, aesthetic and community. It mixed video, stills and podcasts. #finePRINTfriday was in partnership with Class FM radio station, Accra. It featured African print scholars alongside designers, buyers and fashionistas. The discussion aired on Class FM Radio, Accra and ABN Radio UK, the still images were featured across social media – on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Every Friday in Ghana, we rock print. EAA Media Productions has engaged that day to create this visual conversation project.
ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Rock your print, snap a selfie, post it/tweet it/IG it with the hashtag, your name and your location in the world.
ON AIR: ACCRA - tune in to Class 91.3FM 8.10am for discussions with Cultural Historians, Fashion Designers. Artists, Politicians, Celebrities
ON AIR: LONDON - tune in to ABN Radio UK 9.10am. #finePRINTfriday is an internationally syndicated radio segment on air in ACCRA & LONDON.
PODCAST: check out #podcastGHANA for #finePRINTfriday discussions.
Follow #finePRINTfriday on IG.