About the Black Media Story Summits

Black Public Media convened its inaugural National Black Media Story Summit on April 6, 2018, to assess and address deep and systemic content pipeline inequities across the media industry. Since then, BPM has convened regional story summits in Newark, N.J.; Durham, N.C., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; Houston; and Baltimore; as well as a second National Story Summit, which was held virtually in June 2020.

These summits not only help to foster connections between Black media makers, local leaders and community organizers, but they provide inspiration for the development of public media content on an array of topics reflecting the Black experience. These summits also attract partners who share BPM’s commitment to ensuring that the content airing on America’s Public Media stations reflects the rich diversity our nation enjoys.

In fall 2021, BPM partnered with the National Network to Innovate for COVID-19 and Adult Vaccine Equity (NNICE) to explore media strategies for overcoming the problem of vaccine hesitancy among Blacks and Latinos in the United States. BPM’s Vaccine Equity Story Summits convene local health care professionals, media makers and other community stakeholders in select parts of the country to explore local approaches to creating pro-vaccine media stories. BPM then awards grants of up to $60K to participating media makers who submit compelling proposals. The first Summit was held in March 2022 in Baltimore. Click below to view productions generated by that Summit. The most recent Summit was held in March 2023 and focused on communities in Michigan and Eastern North Carolina. Three grants will be awarded this spring to media makers who attended that Summit. The resulting productions will premiere this fall.

Watch: Covid Conversations: Baltimore on the Street

Watch: Baltimore Speaks

Watch: Michigan & North Carolina Story Summit proceedings

Climate change and environmental racism are content priorities at Black Public Media. On Nov. 12, 2022, BPM, Houston Cinema Arts Society and the Austin Film Society co-hosted a Black Media Story Summit on Climate Justice. The Houston event addressed the role media makers and public media executives can play in documenting the devastating impacts of climate change on Black communities. Over the next two years, with support from New York Community Trust’s Pare Lorentz Fund, BPM will make four grants of $40K each to feature-length stories on this topic that are in production and/or near completion. Proposals should be submitted through our Open Call or Discretionary Fund programs.