Who We Are

The Emerge Project is a storytelling project that highlights the ways in which Black entrepreneurs and community leaders drive growth and development at the grassroots level in South Africa and Brazil.

All around the world, Black people tend to be seen as needy, troublesome, incapable of generating solutions without outside direction. Our project aims to show that, in fact, the opposite is true: Black people–ordinary, everyday people–are constantly building and rebuilding foundations, using their ingenuity and limited resources to change the world around them.

We use short films, photo essays, articles and blogs to show the real people and the real movements that are driving change at the grassroots level, with an initial focus on Johannesburg, South Africa and Salvador, Brazil.