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We need media that changes lives,
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tells stories
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liberates
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holds people accountable
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asks questions
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seeks answers
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champions imagination
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protects hearts
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encourages minds
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and allows all good things to grow.
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We need media where we need to be together
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in order to create it.
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We need media that reflects the struggle
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and resilience of our communities,
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that tells honest stories
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that teaches patience, presence, and process
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while reminding us what's possible.
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We need media that wakes up the Harriet Tubman in us.
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The Audre Lorde in us.
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The Nanny of the Maroons in us.
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We need media that grows what we will risk
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for our collective freedom.
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We need media that amplifies our voice.
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We need media that is honest and kind,
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that invites us to be our full selves.
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We need media that supports our healing.
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We need media that titillates us.
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That inspires us.
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That lets us see the very best of ourselves in the present,
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and makes us long for the future that we're co-creating.
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We need media that speaks to our communities
and where we come from.
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We need media about being human.
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We need media that is owned and operated
for, by and about the people.
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We need media that amplifies the experience and ideas
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of people of colour, queer and trans folks, the working class,
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immigrants, the chronically ill and disabled, prisoners, youth,
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and all of us who dare to dream of a world
where these voices are front and centre.
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[ SINGING ] * Have you seen the stars? *
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*Have you seen the stars...?*
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*Ever sat inside of one, the fabric bends, sending ripples...*
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*Of meaning ... to the future ... to the future...*
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We need media that sows seeds,
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that lifts voices,
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that grows communities.
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This is media that creates sustainable freedom.
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We need media that loves.
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We need media that shows the world
as a complex and beautiful place,
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and gives people the opportunity to choose
how they participate in those complexities.
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We need media that supports our work in our regions
and in our communities.
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We need media that supports young people
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learning about different ways of being in the world,
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and not being desensitized by it.
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We need media that tells stories
whose endings we don't already know.
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We need media that compels us to stretch, explore, and create,
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rather than tracing the borders of the narratives
we've heard repeated time and time again.
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We need media that can be shared
not just in the moment of making,
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but in the re-telling and sharing of the story.
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That can fit in our hands and be passed from one to another,
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that is tactile, share-able, imaginative
in how it tells and re-tells the stories.
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We need media that moves and sings,
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takes wings, flies, opens eyes,
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creates surprise and belief and relief,
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and lets us move, swim, sing, bling...
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turn from fear, makes things clear, designs, inspired minds,
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gets free, gets open, gets level, correct, connects.
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[ SINGING ] *Have you seen the stars?*
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*Have you seen the stars?*
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*Ever sat inside of one...the fabric bends sending ripples...*
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We need media that will act as a guiding hand
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to educate, explore, inspire,
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and create systems of support for building a world
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that is centred on equity and justice for all of us.
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We need media that encourages everyone
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to be active participants in creating the world they want to see.
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We need media that looks like us,
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all the ways that we look.
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We need media that can be read on a screen reader
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or a prison zine
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or a life saving facebook group
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or a text-to-voice APP
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or a printing press in my backyard.
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Media that's a secret message passed on and on and on.
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We need media made by and for disabled folks
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because the world needs our life saving crip genius
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and we need it most of anybody.
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We need media that's cheap.
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We need media that anyone can do.
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Media that heals with salt water, and spells and sage.
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Media that is a secret map to the next world
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that I pass on to you.