Talk + Town Hall Meeting

Creativity As Activism:

Being Creative in Troubled Times Is a Radical Act.

When the world feels like chaos, it’s easy to shut down, scroll endlessly, and hope someone rescues us. Creativity gives us another option: make something. This talk + town hall explores creativity as a pathway to meaning, fulfillment, connection, and building the kind of world we want to inhabit.

45-60 min event
Talk, Screening, Discussion, Q&A
Watch a film fully made by High Schoolers
For mature teens, young adults & families
No creative experience needed

Don't Just Stand There. Make Something

Bring This to Your Community:

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Presented by

Make Something Anyway

Why This, Why Now

When the World Feels Unsettled, Creativity Gives Us Somewhere to Go.

When things feel uncertain, unstable, or overwhelming, it's easy to get pulled toward fear, doomscrolling, paralysis, numbness, or disconnection. Those responses are human — but they leave us stuck watching. Creativity offers another option: participate. Making something, however small, is a way of meeting the moment instead of bracing against it.

The Pull Inward

Uncertainty can push us toward fear, doomscrolling, numbness, and disconnection — quietly convincing us there's nothing to do but watch.

Another Option

Creativity gives us somewhere to put the feeling. Instead of freezing, we make, write, draw, build, or say something true.

Participate

The act of creating moves us from passive consumption toward participation — a way to stay human when things feel hard to make sense of.

The Radical Act

Creativity Is Not Escape. It Is Participation.

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Creativity as Agency

Making something moves us from passive consumption toward participation — from watching the world happen to taking part in it.

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Creativity as Meaning-Making

Story, art, performance, writing, and filmmaking help us metabolize experience and make sense of what we are living through.

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Creativity as Connection

Creative expression helps people feel less alone and gives communities shared language for what is difficult to say directly.

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Creativity as Possibility

Imagination lets us rehearse futures that do not exist yet — and begin to picture what might come next.

Creativity is not a luxury for stable times. It is one of the ways we stay human when things feel unstable.

What We'll Explore

Why Making Something Changes How We Meet the World.

The talk moves through a handful of simple, human ideas about creativity and uncertainty — the kind you can feel in your own life, not just think about. And we don't just talk about what creativity can do. We watch it happen.

Ideas We'll Sit With

Creativity & Uncertainty

Why Uncertainty Shuts Creativity DownHow fear and overwhelm quietly talk us out of making anything at all.
Making Restores MovementWhy making something can bring back a sense of agency and momentum.
Stories Help Us UnderstandHow story and expression help us make sense of what we're living through.
It Counts Even UnseenWhy creative expression matters even if no one ever sees the result.
From Individual to CommunityHow one person's creativity can ripple outward into a whole community.

PLACEHOLDER — replace with an image of young people making or sharing creative work together — Identity · Belonging · Self-Expression

And especially for young people

Creativity can become a place to test identity, tell the truth sideways, imagine different futures, and make room for parts of ourselves that don't always feel welcome everywhere else.

Still from #FareLife and student-made work screened as part of the experience

See the Radical Act on Screen

The experience includes about 20 minutes of screening time: the full first season of #FareLife, our queer community-built web series, plus selected work created entirely by student filmmakers through CT Story Labs.

The point is simple: creativity stops being an abstract idea when you can see what people actually made.

You don't have to think of yourself as “creative” to take part. This is about what making something does for all of us — and how it changes the way we meet the world.

The Format

First a Talk. Then We Watch. Then We Open the Room.

🎤25–35 Min Talk

🎬~20 Min Screening

🗣️Questions, Reactions & Reflections

✓Intimate, Accessible & Participatory

Brian begins with a lively 25–35 minute talk built around stories, creativity, identity, uncertainty, and imagination. Then we spend about 20 minutes watching the full first season of #FareLife and selected student-made work from CT Story Labs. After that, the room opens for questions, reactions, reflections, discussion, and the community-specific ideas people bring with them.

The Screenings Are Part of the Point.Participants don't just hear that creativity can be a radical act. They get to see what that looks like when people tell the truth, take creative risks, collaborate, and put something real into the world.

This is not a lecture-only event, not a workshop that requires prior creative skill, and not a formal keynote. It's meant to feel like a real room full of people thinking out loud together.

PLACEHOLDER — replace with an image of a speaker mid-talk with an engaged audience, hands raised

Talk. Watch. Reflect. THEN Make something.

Submit Inquiry →

What They Take With Them

A Little More Permission to Make Something.

PLACEHOLDER — replace with an image of a young person smiling while making or sharing creative work

01
Permission to Create ImperfectlyCreativity does not require genius, certainty, or professional ambition.
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Creativity as AgencyMaking something can be a way of moving instead of freezing.
03
Curiosity as a DoorwayCuriosity can help people reconnect with imagination and possibility.
04
Participation MattersCreative acts can ripple outward into families, communities, and culture.
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One Next Creative MoveEveryone leaves with one small way to create, express, or make meaning after the event.

Why CT Story Labs

Built by People Who Actually Make Things.

Brian is a queer filmmaker, clinical therapist, educator, and creator whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, mental health, identity, creativity, and community. He writes, directs, and produces #FareLife, works with young filmmakers, teaches storytelling and filmmaking, and works professionally in mental health — so he approaches creativity from both an artistic and a psychological perspective.

FilmmakerClinical TherapistEducatorCreator

Brian HOGAN

Filmmaker | Therapist | Educator

Allie O'BRIEN

Producer | Educator

Tyler STIRLING

Editor | Educator

Built for Real Community Spaces

Bring the Room. We'll Bring the Spark.

This talk is built to adapt to different community settings — wherever young people and families gather to think, make, and connect.

High SchoolsCollegesLibrariesYouth OrganizationsArts OrganizationsCommunity CentersFamily ProgramsLGBTQ+ OrganizationsCommunity Gatherings

Because the program includes the full first season of #FareLife, this experience is best suited to mature teen, college-age, young adult, family, and community audiences.

Rithza S, high school graduate — Rithza SHigh School Graduate

Bring It To Your Community

Creativity Belongs in the Room.

Tell us a little about your school, organization, group, or gathering and we'll follow up personally about fit, format, and availability.

Thank You for Your Inquiry

Someone from the CT Story Labs team will get back to you personally within 2 business days.

CT Story Labs Main Website

Creativity Is a Radical Act

The World Doesn't Have to Feel Settled
Before You Create.

Make something anyway.

Bring This to Your Community →