2013 Fellow

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Andrew Slack

Project Description

Andrew Slack is an experienced performer and social organizer who started the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) as a first step toward harnessing the energy of a popular story toward activism and civic engagement. Ready to take his unique model of fan activism to the next level, Imagine Better goes far beyond the Harry Potter series, organizing fans of multiple popular books, TV shows, and movies to become the heroes they aspire to be by taking action in the real world.

At her Harvard commencement speech, JK Rowling said “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

By harnessing the imagination of those who dare to imagine themselves as the heroes in their favorite stories, Imagine Better will help create an empowered citizenry of fan activists prepared to innovate solutions around the complex problems of systemic poverty, human rights atrocities, and social inequality. This unprecedented coalition of fan activism will enable us to get beyond the technocratic details that make activism inaccessible with respect to how we as human beings communicate: through story.

In today’s society popular books like the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series have brought together millions of fans from around the world. The Harry Potter Alliance’s Accio Books campaign is the flagship book drive that allows fans to share their love of reading and highlight the importance of books in their lives. HPA’s first campaign in 2009 was able to generate about 14,000 books. In 2010, HPA expanded its efforts by engaging a larger fan coalition that goes far beyond Harry Potter and donated over 41,000 books.

Imagine Better will coordinate this cross-fandom collaboration, and the fan-based book drive started by the HPA will soon be raising over 100,000 books annually. Imagine Better will build a vibrant online community that is regularly engaged with its audience and allows for faster mobilization with deeper impact and longer-term engagement.