As storytellers, we work every day to share the present moment, what’s happening in the here-&-now. But in many ways, we strive to also preserve visual histories for our client-family. At Steven James, we understand that stories serve as context for today, yet also help us to reckon with our past as we venture into tomorrow.
Black History Month is a call to understand Black histories, but also to spotlight Black achievement. Throughout this month, the SJ family is sharing with you the stories and the people that have had a profound impact on us as creatives, but more importantly as human beings.
From icons in history like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr. to those Black heroes of lesser-known celebrity but whose impact is of equal measure, we honor them all. We honor them by sharing their story, picking up the mantle of their work, and striving to better understand their contribution to history.
One of the unique threads of our own SJ story is that we come from different perspectives outside traditional marketing. Some of us were teachers, filmmakers, non-profit advocates, public administrators, even carpet installers. But what bonded us was a long history of passionate change-making, in our case through visual storytelling.
Likewise, our team’s embrace of this Black History Month is on a diverse group of people who have become part of Black history, of America’s history not because they necessarily set out to change the world, but because they could do something to make it even just a bit better. They were artists, performers, sports headliners, public speakers, but they were also blue-collar workers, public servants, neighborhood organizers, parents, children, and the unsuspecting who fate would tap as an instrument of history.
May we all be the continuing legacy of their stories.
