Malkia Cyril

Media Action Grassroots Network - Center for Media Justice

Malkia Amala Cyril is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice -- home of the Media Action Grassroots Network, a national alliance of 150 community organizations collaborating for media access, rights, and representation. Cyril is Prime Movers fellow and recipient of the prestigious Hugh Hefner First Amendment award and the Donald H. McGannon Award for work to advance the roles of women and people of color in the media reform movement, among others. Cyril has appeared in Politico, Al Jazeera, and documentaries Miss Representation, Outfoxed and more.

Presentations from Facing Race 2016

How to Use your TV: Using Small Screens to Move Racial Justice

Calling all TV addicts — this is the workshop for you. Today’s television industry has more room for the stories of racial justice than ever before. This double panel presentation will focus on strategies for making the small screen work for racial justice by engaging writers’ rooms, taking advantage of reality TV opportunities, by hosting watch parties or generating social media commentary on TV content that applies to communities. We will include a special focus on the Netflix documentary “13th,” featuring activists from the documentary and a Skype appearance by its director, Ava DuVernay.

Speakers: Van Jones, Malkia Cyril, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Brandon Andrews, Tracy Van Slyke, Sharda Sekaran

Changing the Big Story on Race

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to shift the way we understand the world around us, to create empathy, and effect change. Narrative change projects aim primarily to shift the way that a particular community or issue is characterized in the press or popular culture. There might be an immediate policy goal, or it could be part of a broader strategy. It usually involves significant media and communications work, including distribution planning for research reports, and creation of visual storytelling products like short videos. How do you know when a narrative change project is needed as part of your campaign? In this session expert panelists Malkia Cyril, Deeepa Iyer, and Tracy Van Slyke share examples of successful campaigns they have run, and offer insights as to what makes a narrative change project effective, and how to measure impact.

Speakers: Rinku Sen, MS, Malkia Cyril, Deepa Iyer

Digital Jim Crow: Hi-Tech Policing, Racism and Resistance in the 21st Century

In the 19th century, Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation at the state and local level. By the 20th century these laws were replaced with discriminatory drug and crime policies that created a new, racially biased system of mass incarceration. From the increasing use of fusion centers to police technologies and predictive policing practices, the Internet and related digital technologies facilitate the speed, scale, and secrecy of policing -- and exacerbate racial bias. Across the country, communities of color are fighting back. Learn about the ways high-tech policing threatens racial justice, hear stories of resistance, and learn how you can protect your city from racial bias in high-tech policing.

Speakers: Malkia Cyril, Hamid Khan, Joseph Torres

Presentations from Facing Race 2014

Racing Up Your Movement

Race plays a role in every issue, but is often ignored in crafting strategy. In this workshop, three national leaders will reveal how their organizations and allies asserted a race frame on movements that were predominantly white. From stories about shifting the good food, reproductive rights and media reform movements, attendees will learn principles and gather ideas for research, leadership development and communications to blast through resistance to a race frame.

Speakers: Malkia Cyril, Saru Jayaraman, Miriam Yeung, Paris Hatcher