HBO Max Pa’lante Partners with WORD to Launch the “Are You Listening?” Campaign [VIDEO]

HBO Max Pa’lante! today announced their partnership with WORD, an Afro-Latina owned creative agency dedicated to cultural storytelling, to launch the Are You Listening? Campaign. “Are You Listening?” is a content and community initiative inspired by HBO’s iconic, and award-winning show, “Habla,” which features sometimes funny, often poignant, and always thoughtful testimonials from U.S. Latinos reflecting, celebrating, and honoring the Latinx experience in the U.S.

HBO Max Pa’lante! and WORD have partnered with some of the most impactful organizations and people in the Latinx community to bring “Are You Listening?” to life. The four-part series will run throughout 2021 and focus on four themes, with each part including a digital vignette and community gathering events. Some of the partners include the LA-based nonprofit Las Fotos Club, Latinx Therapy, Good Moms, Bad Choices, Poet Yesika Salgado, Dr. Griselda Rodriguez of The Brujas of Brooklyn, youth activists Sara Mora & Luis Hernandez, Reann Silva, founder of Beauty Blender, and more.

“For more than a decade we’ve worked with Alberto Ferreras, creator of the award-winning “Habla” series, to bring inspiring, thought-provoking, and educational content that shines a light on the Latinx experience in the U.S.,” said Jackie Gagne, Senior Vice President, Multicultural Marketing, WarnerMedia. “Our partnership with WORD and the universal experiences shared in “Habla” will provide an opportunity to introduce the groundbreaking series to a new audience, while bridging cultural gaps, engaging with our audience, and providing a platform for thoughtful reflection.”

The stories told in “Habla” have an educational and cultural impact both with the fast-growing American Latino community and with a broader audience. “Are You Listening?” is a call to reflect on those lessons – a moment to stop, observe, go inward and consider the ways we communicate with each other and ourselves. Anyone can talk, but are we truly listening? The Are You Listening? programming line-up includes:

· The Future of Us Through the Lens of Gen Z (May)

· In partnership with Las Fotos Club, this masterclass storyboarding session will be hosted by Habla creator, Alberto Ferreras. Students will create a short film exploring how they have been living for the past year and what brings them joy. The short film will act as a time capsule of these 9 young women.

· The first vignette features Sara Mora, Genai Nakama, Luis Hernandez, Perseus Neal, and Greisy Hernandez, five Gen Z Latinx, discussing identity, community, culture, their visions for the future, and how older generations can support youth leadership.

· Modern Motherhood (July)

· In partnership with Clubhouse and Good Moms, Bad Choices, Habla Modern Motherhood will honor the work of mothers and give them a chance to let loose. This is a chance to demystify cultural norms in a space with no judgment, just real talk from real moms.

· The History of Us: How Language Defines Us (October)

· Being Latinx sometimes means straddling two or three cultures and often this can alter the way we express ourselves. This series will explore how we use language across cultures to tell our stories, to say I love you, to demand more. If you listen closely, you’ll find through our differences, we have more in common than we know. Partnership details to be confirmed.

· Mental Health and Generational Healing (December)

· In partnership with Latinx Therapy, the workshop will concentrate on learning to be proactive in communications vs. reactive when in conversation with others and ourselves, as well as cultivating healthy boundaries, releasing guilt, and developing better communication skills.

“I’m Panamanian, Jamaican, and Jewish from New York City. Growing up, I craved to see stories, experiences, and FACES that reflected the one I saw in the mirror. Now I know that those challenging experiences of feeling unseen were setting me up for the work I do today through WORD: cultural storytelling that reflects the nuances of being human. Of being Latinx. Of being young, Black, complex, joyful, and sometimes filled with rage. All the things I wish I had seen as a young person,” said, Zoila Darton, Founder & Creative Director of WORD, “I’m so grateful to HBO and the Pa’lante! team for trusting us to tell these stories – for always being a place for the in-between. A series like “Habla” and campaigns like “Are You Listening?” are medicine for the soul. We’re just grateful to be a vessel.”

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