coming soon — American Creed: Citizen Power

CITIZEN POWER: AN AMERICAN CREED MULTI PLATFORM FOLLOW-UP PROJECT AND ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE

In 2018, the PBS program American Creed wrestled with the question: what does it mean to be American? Scholars of our Democracy told their own American stories in a mosaic that sparked reflection and dialogue in communities around the country.

In the new American Creed PBS documentary series, American Creed: Citizen Power, Stanford University professors David M. Kennedy and Condoleezza Rice are reuniting to gather together a diverse supergroup of young leaders who take on what the young leaders see as increasingly urgent issues that threaten democracy in their own communities and beyond. Each 30 minute episode for PBS, and a series of shorter films for classrooms and YouTube, will explore how these “extraordinary, ordinary” young leaders discover their power to take action.

The young leaders we are casting, with help from Eric Liu and other prominent scholars of American democracy, represent a wide spectrum of backgrounds and beliefs but share a passion for bringing people together and combating the increasing polarization in their own communities and in American Society. Their stories will catalyze coordinated national reflection, dialogue, and action at a perilous moment in American life. In half-hour episodes, those stories will interweave with dialogue between the young adult leaders facilitated by Stanford professors Kennedy and Rice, Eric Liu and other mentors who help the young adult leaders along their journey towards building bottom-up power for their communities.

Across PBS channels and in person in classrooms and community centers across the United State, American Creed: Citizen Power continues a successful ongoing initiative, exploring ideals of freedom, fairness and opportunity that have fueled the expansion of democratic participation and civil rights at key moments throughout our history. The PBS half hour documentary episodes and ancillary content (photo essays that reach large audiences on partnering journalism sites, social media videos and photography of our featured cast and young influencers, classroom activities distributed nationally by leading civic education organizations) will invite large and diverse audiences to engage with challenges including economic and educational inequity, environmental degradation, political polarization, and the erosion of democratic norms and institutions.