As we welcome the new year, I found it absolutely fortuitous that I stumbled upon the concept of "hopepunk". It's what I needed and I invite you to embrace this newly coined perspective for your work and life in 2019. I know I will be finding ways to reflect positivity and embrace continuing to gently fight for a better tomorrow.
Created by Alexandra Rowland, a Massachusetts writer, in a two-sentence Tumblr post in July 2017- "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on." the idea has spread throughout literary circles, especially in sci-fi, quickly over the past 18 months.
Depending on who you ask, hopepunk is as much a mood and a spirit as a definable literary movement, a narrative message of “keep fighting, no matter what.” If that seems too broad — after all, aren’t all fictional characters fighting for something? — then consider the concept of hope itself, with all the implications of love, kindness, and faith in humanity it encompasses.
Now, picture that swath of comfy ideas, not as a brightly optimistic state of being, but as an active political choice, made with full self-awareness that things might be bleak or even frankly hopeless, but you’re going to keep hoping, loving, being kind nonetheless.
Through this framing, the idea of choosing hope becomes both an existential act that affirms your humanity, and a form of resistance against cynical worldviews that dismiss hope as a powerful force for change.
(I strongly encourage you to read the whole article which has a fantastic list of hopepunk artworks.)
For those of us working in the nonprofit realm it can be tempting to tell the stories of struggle and focus on the problems be they small or large. In fact some national nonprofits like United Way have chosen to reframe their work in terms of darkness. The most recent national branding campaign uses grim, shocking and often disturbing black and white imagery to depict the work of this national service organization. Using language such as "we fight" and focusing on the struggle has been difficult for many of United Way branches.
Now while I don't work at a fancy advertising agency, like the folks who came up with this campaign, nor do I know the details about the market research that they conducted to develop this strategy, I can tell you that using fear to inspire involvement can be a double-edged sword and unfortunately, I think that this creative fell on the side of failure rather than success.
Consider how the same concept could be redefined using hopepunk. If the punk movement is all about fight the status quo, resisting authority and living life filled with a sense of individual freedom, wouldn't layering that model of operation with making the conscious choice to be connected, helpful, optimistic and positive be something far more attractive to social change?
This lovely music video of Vienna Teng's "Level Up" is just one example of hopepunk explained and has something significant that anyone working in the nonprofit world can relate to (plus you can't escape the parallels in the choices of images to the United Way video above.)
I want to leave you with the works from Frank Turner"Be More Kind" as you contemplate hopepunk and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this concept as it applies to your life and work.
Be More Kind- Frank Turner
History's been leaning on me lately
I can feel the future breathing down my neck
And all the things I thought were true when I was young, and you were too
Turned out to be broken, I don't know what comes next
In a world that has decided that it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind
They've started raising walls around the world now
Like hackles raised upon a cornered cat
On the borders in our heads between things that can and can't be said
We stopped talking to each other and there's something wrong with that
So before you go out searching, don't decide what you will find
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind
You should know you're not alone
Trouble comes and trouble goes How this ends no one knows
So, hold on tight when the wind blows
The wind blew both of us to sand and sea
And where the dry lands stands is hard to say
As the current drags us by the shore we can no longer say for sure
Who's drowning, or if they can be saved
But when you're out there floundering, like a lighthouse I will shine
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind
Like a beacon reaching out to you and yours, for me and mine
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind
In a world that has decided that it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind