Creators’ rights are civil rights. For too long, creators of color have been prevented from accessing their rights and legal protections. From the historical race-based denial of patents to current disparities in broadband access, creators of color have faced countless barriers in building wealth and receiving due credit for their work.
We believe that protecting and advancing the rights of creators is one of the defining economic and social justice issues of this generation. The work of creators is vital for community organizing, movement building, and ongoing innovation towards a future without injustice and inequity. From the passage of voting rights to marriage equality legislation, many of the landmark social justice achievements of the last century could not have been reached without the inspiration and amplification by artists and creative workers.
Inspired by the intersection of activism and creativity built during the Civil Rights Movement, Take Creative Control was founded to empower the great storytellers of our time and ensure that the creative contributions of all communities are protected.
About Take Creative Control
Take Creative Control (TCC) is a creator-informed and creator-focused education and advocacy organization building a multicultural community of creator-advocates. Our work is centered on creators of color whose livelihoods depend on effectively sharing, protecting, and monetizing their work. With education, resources, and community convenings, we build power with creators to advocate against policies and practices that impede their ability to tell their stories, compete in the economy, and collectively thrive.
What We Do
Our approach is driven by a commitment to serving creators that have been excluded due to race, gender, socio-economic status, geography, sexual identity, and more. We apply a holistic approach to solve a multifaceted, complex problem.
Creator-driven advocacy.
Our advocacy work is creator informed and creator driven. Our policy and legal experts help our creators identify and define the injustice they’ve endured. Creators know something is wrong but often struggle with identifying the underlying causes of those injustices and relating them to policy solutions. We connect our creators with the knowledge and infrastructure to advocate for policy solutions that support their ability to share, protect, and monetize their work.
Creative partnerships and storytelling.
Creativity and social change catalyze each other, and telling our stories creates space for us to write our futures. TCC builds networks of creators and experts through strategic partnerships and storytelling initiatives to ready creators for self and collective advocacy and amplify their experiences to the decision makers who most need to understand how policies impact the lived experiences of creators of color. Our creative partnerships connect creators to policy solutions – we leverage their craft and platform to lift up the issues impacting their communities. From musicians to muralists, our community of creators curates experiences that shine a light on the lived experiences and challenges of marginalized communities that inspire the next generation of activists.
Direct creator outreach and education.
From film screenings to creators’ roundtables to panels that turn into a party, TCC provides education on dense topics like intellectual property, platform integrity and business development with energy, clarity, and inclusion. Our events have included free legal counseling to creators, both one-on-one and in industry-based cohorts, in partnership with law firms, NGOs, and academic institutions. We work with creators and connect them with attorneys, policy, and tech experts, and we facilitate working groups that collaborate to create new solutions and imagine new systems where equity, sustainability and empowerment for creators of color are truly possible.
Our Leadership
- Kim Tignor | Founder and Executive Director
- Hollis Wong-Wear | Creative Producer & Program Strategist
Kim Tignor
Founder & Executive Director
Kim Tignor is the Executive Director of TCC and its sister organization, the Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice. Her expertise includes intellectual property, free expression, tech innovation, diversity in media, and economic justice. Throughout her career, Kimberly has focused on legal issues surrounding underprivileged persons and advancing the causes of equality and social justice. She is particularly well-versed in working across multicultural issues and topics of key interest to activists and artists of color. Her impressive legal experience spans from directing policy at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to coordinating state and national level pipeline and advocacy efforts for Presidential judicial nominees at the VENG Group. She received her JD from Georgetown University, and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Information Technology from the College of William and Mary.
In 2018, Kim Tignor founded TCC. In 2016, she attended a convening where leaders in policy, technology, law, pop-culture, and the arts united to discuss one question: now what? As a civil rights attorney and policy wonk, it reminded her of the bridge between and consolidation of the advocacy & creative worlds built during the Civil Rights Movement. They discussed how marginalized communities, through the theft of their intellectual property, have been prevented from protecting their narratives and building wealth. Countless creators shared stories about the violation endured from the misappropriation of their works without recourse. Their experiences demonstrated that IP is the defining economic and social justice issue of this generation. Her call to action was clear – empower the great storytellers of our time and endeavor to ensure that the creative contributions of all communities are protected.
Hollis Wong-Wear
Creative Producer & Program Strategist
Hollis Wong-Wear (she/her) is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, songwriter, content producer and strategic facilitator who works at the intersection of creativity, community organizing and public policy. With her roots in spoken word and slam poetry through the nationally recognized Youth Speaks program, Hollis cares deeply about how the arts fuel and shape civic discourse, and is dedicated to lending her voice and capacities towards vibrant social equity. Hollis has released music as an independent artist for over a decade, most recently releasing her debut solo LP Subliminal in May 2022. In her career as an artist, she has experienced first-hand the complexities and challenges of owning and protecting copyright and IP, and her work with Take Creative Control is fueled by her passion for economic and creative self-determination for all artists.
In addition to her artistry and songwriting career, Hollis is also a public speaker, event curator, and facilitator who works frequently with brands, organizations and government. She specializes in community-centered grantmaking, arts and culture programming, strategic communications, and meaningful civic activations. Hollis is also a seasoned content and video producer, including directing and producing Take Creative Control: The Series. She is a Google Next Gen Policy Leader, an alumna of the Hedgebrook Residency, and is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow.
A graduate of Seattle University, Hollis was born and raised in Petaluma, CA, and attended high school in San Francisco. She now lives in Los Angeles.