Cultural Organizing

Highlander’s Cultural Organizing programming is launching a Train-the-Trainers series in 2024 to nurture the skills of grassroots leadership and help build the capacity of marginalized communities across the South. The next session is May 7-11, so learn more and apply today!

We believe in the power of communities and their ability to identify and address the challenges they face. We also believe in the power of art and culture as tools to dramatize injustice, to visualize freedom and justice for all, and to actualize that vision.

We are providing four opportunities in 2024 to join a growing network of cultural organizers working at the nexus of art, culture, spirit, transformation, and policy and practice change:

  • Feb. 12-16, 2024
  • May 7-11, 2024
  • June 26 – July 3, 2024
  • July 31-Aug. 7, 2024

 

The Train-the-Trainers will:

  • Provide a shared framework of power, strategy, and the importance of cultural organizing for community organizing
  • Build a cohort of trainers to lead trainings
  • Develop a strategy and visioning space for members to think and plan outside traditional facilitation models
  • Share how training and cultural organizing can help to build concrete power for ongoing organizing efforts

 

Highlander cultural organizers and cohort members will train people from your organization to become Cultural Organizers in your community. The curriculum also supports groups in developing strategies to build people power and fight fascism in their communities.

Learn more and apply!

English application

Spanish application

Highlander’s Cultural Organizing program has been in an ongoing exploration of the Recipe for Culture, culminating in a 2024 Train the Trainer series to share out all we’ve learned and developed and multiply the practice and impact of cultural organizing in communities across the U.S. South. The videos below are available for use in your community to deepen your practice and understanding of cultural organizing and to share the process and lessons developed by our program participants in an Assess and Scheme session to inform the Train the Trainers curriculum.

The Recipe for Culture video highlights the amazing work supported by Cultural Organizer Je Naé in 2020, including biweekly virtual Spiritual Soirees and Happy Hours centering healing, collective joy and resilience during the pandemic; the Culture Cohort supporting five culture workers in the South, culminating in the 48-hour virtual Cultural Bazaar; Parties at the Polls to celebrate voter engagement and voting rights; and much more.