SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR
BLACK STORIES
We launched in 2016 as a groundbreaking podcast with the mission to reclaim the Black narrative and inspire people to embrace their unique stories. Our award-winning series has reimagined the art of oral tradition and pioneered a fresh format for the podcast industry.
Most importantly, we established a new standard for Black storytelling by prioritizing care, nuance, authenticity, honesty, and expansiveness. Today, we are an independent storytelling studio and global community.
with renewed purpose, we're EVOLVING
A HOME FOR OUR STORIES, STORYTELLING AND SELVES
ALL LED, FUNDED, AND OWNED BY OUR COMMUNITY
MEDIA AND PODCASTS, BOOKS AND ZINES, IN-PERSON EXPERIENCES
RECLAIMING OUR STORIES FOR OUR PEOPLE
The world works hard to convince us we are not enough. That we have no history, our voices hold no power, our stories no value. And yet we are the source of cultural and economic wealth.
​
We know better. Our stories are how we remember who we are, pass down what we know, and imagine what's still possible.
​
At the same time, something else is true: we've always built our own. Juke joints, beauty salons, newspapers and presses, sou-sous. Our own doors and our own tables. How lucky are we to have these blueprints.
The future of You Had Me at Black is one where we are not just the tellers and keepers of our stories — but the beneficiaries too.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
FOR EXCEPTIONAL STORYTELLING
Shaped by brilliant minds of Cole Arthur Riley, Saidiya Hartman, and Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, these values are north stars: declarations (what we believe to be true), challenges (what if we moved like they are true?), and manifestations (what will become true).
SACRED
SELF-WORTH
Honoring of the divine within ourselves and each other. We affirm our inherent worthiness, reject respectability, and cultivate space that dignifies our full humanity.
WAYWARD
IMAGINATION
An invitation to dream what doesn't yet exist and sketch blueprints that bend the rules. We refuse the limits we've been handed and design new answers in their place.
RADICAL
CONNECTION
A reminder that our strength is relational. We show up for one another in ways that defy systems of domination, and instead center love, kinship, and solidarity in everything we do.