To be human is to tell stories. We are social creatures. We create and live within complex societies in order to subsist, but also in order to understand and enrich. We want to see ourselves reflected back to us, to hear words that describe us, to piece together meaning from the everyday and exceptional experiences that surround us. We seek out stories and, where stories don’t exist, we create them. In the words of Joan Didion, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” And the stories told are only as good—as impactful, as enlightening, as motivating—as the way in which they’re told. At TENCUE we’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with a number of organizations whose missions revolve around amplifying, reframing, and celebrating the stories of others. We want to share the work of some of our personal favorite storytellers with you.  

“I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert storytellers for many years” (1).

-Mark Twain

GLAAD—the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation—is the world’s largest LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization. Growing out of the misinformation campaigns against the LGBTQ+ community during the height of the AIDS epidemic, GLAAD works tirelessly to increase media accountability, ensuring fair, accurate, and inclusive representation that rewrites the LGBTQ+ narrative and promotes cultural change. Through entertainment, news, and digital media, GLAAD shares stories from the LGBTQ+ community that help accelerate acceptance. Through their triannual GLAAD Media Awards events, they recognize and honor media for their positive and accurate portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community and the issues that affect their lives. Amid the current uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and media depictions, GLAAD’s work has never been more relevant and the stories they amplify have never been more powerful.

The Ever Forward Club is a Bay Area-based organization that provides mentorship opportunities and social emotional development to at-risk young men. Through their work, they seek to address underlying causes of dropout rates, youth violence, and achievement gaps. Their focus goes beyond just academic achievement. They work to draw out and reflect the stories of their participants to create an environment where young men can learn from each other and find pride and mutual support among their own communities. Their #millionmaskmovement initiative took this idea to a global scale, inviting individuals from around the world to participate in a self-reflective exercise by drawing and describing the mask they wear, as well as the details of what their mask hides. Through the sharing of these personal stories, the movement aims at gathering a deeper understanding of how our own narratives connect us to one another.