smartMeme

Publicist

• Jen Angel
  Phone: (510) 910-5627

Websites

• smartMeme Website
• In the Middle of A Whirlwind

Re:Imagining Change – An Introduction to Story-based Strategy explores how culture, media, memes and narrative intertwine with activist strategies, and offers practical methods to amplify progressive causes in the popular culture. This hands-on guide presents theories, tools, and campaign case studies that integrate storytelling and social change. Re:Imagining Change is a fresh perspective on activism that offers unique insights into the challenges of our political moment, and invites us to engage with questions of theory and practice for the complex times we live in.

Co-authored by Doyle Canning & Patrick Reinsborough, Re:Imagining Change is an inspirational, inside look at the innovative methodology developed by the non-profit strategy and training organization, smartMeme. Founded in 2002, smartMeme offers tools, training, and strategy support to social change organizations working for peace, social justice, and ecological sanity. SmartMeme has trained over 2,000 activists and collaborated with over 60 organizations to build cross-cutting alliances and win campaigns on critical environmental, human rights, and social justice issues. Re:Imagining Change is a summary of these experiments in the field, and a call to innovate how we practice social change in the era of information overload and ecological crisis.

Doyle and Patrick are both accomplished speakers, facilitators, trainers and long time social change practitioners who can provide both skills based trainings and inspiring lectures grounded in real world, grassroots experience.

They are available to talk about & facilitate workshops on:

• Re:Imagining Change – Narrative Strategies for 21st Century Activism
• Winning the Battle of the Story – How the Power of Narrative can help you Win Campaigns and Shift Culture
• A Call to Innovation: Reimagining Strategy and Facing the Ecological Crisis

About the Authors

Doyle Canning is a strategist, trainer, and organizer with a passion for stories and a commitment to building holistic movements. She came to the smartMeme collective in 2003 after studying critical pedagogy, working as a grassroots organizer, and being banned from Australia for rabble rousing down under. Doyle serves on the advisory funding panel of the Haymarket People’s Fund, an antiracist social change foundation in Boston. She has written a number of articles on social change strategy, including a contribution to Letters from Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005). She enjoys practicing yoga, improvisational cooking, and singing songs of love and struggle.

Patrick Reinsborough is a strategist, campaigner and creative provocateur. He has been involved in campaigns for peace, the environment, and social justice for nearly twenty years, and previously served as the Organizing Director of the Rainforest Action Network. In 2002 he co-founded the smartMeme strategy & training project as a vehicle to explore the intersections of social change strategy, imagination and narrative. Several of his strategy essays are published in Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World. Patrick spends his time parenting, playing music for his friends, and wandering through the urban wilds of San Francisco.