Savannah Romero

Co-Architect | BLIS Collective

Pronouns: she/her

Savannah Romero (she/her) is the Co-Founder and Advisory Board Chair of the BLIS Collective. She is Eastern Shoshone and is the Director of Communications at Tahoma Peak Solutions. She graduated from the University of Washington, has a Master’s in Public Affairs and Policy from New York University, and a Master’s in Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a storyteller, writer, poet, film producer, and an editor for Chapter House Journal. Her work has been featured in Abalone Mountain Press and Outside Magazine and she was recently accepted to the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Building Narrative Power to Support Collective Liberation

Too often, philanthropy gets in the way and old habits die hard. The importance of funding narrative power building in support of liberation and racial equity is critical—but how?

In this session, participants are invited to join the Weissberg Foundation for a panel discussion with Black and Indigenous movement organizers using narrative strategy as a tool for liberation. Speakers include:
- Savannah Romero (Eastern Shoshone), the co-founder of BLIS Collective
- Joe Tolbert, Jr., the Executive Director of Waymakers Collective
- hermelinda cortes, the Executive Director of ReFrame

We’ll discuss the importance of narrative strategy in the Reparations and LandBack movements, their vision for a just world, and how the work of organizers reaches both within and across communities to offer a collective vision of a path forward.

Throughout the panel, learn from speakers as they draw from their experiences working on issues at both state and national levels, the power of challenging narratives that support oppressive systems, and the work we still have to do to build solidarity across communities.

Lastly, we’ll discuss how philanthropy has created barriers to this work but how the field can shift and find better ways to support narrative power building for collective liberation.

Speakers: Leah Salgado, Savannah Romero, Joe Tolbert, Jr.