Juliana Barnet, Activist Explorer
In search of Activist Stories…
Welcome to My Quest: Collecting, Creating, Cultivating and Connecting Activist Stories
I’m Juliana, an Activist Explorer dedicated to highlighting the voices of activists within social movements.
Why This Matters:
To combat erasure and stereotyping, we need authentic portrayals of those fighting for justice, peace, and the planet. Stories that reveal the daily struggles faced in the heart of the fight, and show genuine, multidimensional people engaged in the fascinating, complex work of making change.
The Activist Experience:
Activist life is rich with drama, thrills, romance, comedy, and adventure. We need diverse narratives—movies, novels, TV shows, and more—that invite us into the lives of activists, showcasing their humanity rather than reducing them to stereotypes.
The Power of Fiction:
Fiction opens windows into people’s lives, and brings the reader/viewer into these lives in a uniquely powerful way. We need a variety of genres—mysteries, dramas, adventures, romances, thrillers, and comedies—to illustrate how change is made through collective action, not just individual heroics.
Our Collective Stories:
These narratives are essential for fostering collaboration and strengthening our movements. I collaborate with activists through various collective activities to integrate our stories into movement-building efforts, amplifying authentic voices while challenging harmful narratives.


About Activist Explorer
Activist Explorer is a quest to collect, create, cultivate, and connect our activist stories. The goal is to foster deeper understanding and fairer representation of our wildly diverse global community of boat-rockers, city-hall-fighters, neck-sticker-outers, dreamers, experimenters, and gadflies…aka activists.

About Juliana
Juliana Barnet is a lifelong activist, popular educator, and avid fiction reader. Many years immersed in the ups and downs of popular (and unpopular) movements have inspired her to delve into the nature of activist culture. An avid fiction reader, frustrated by the lack of activist characters in novels and movies, Juliana writes, and encourages others to write, stories centering the fascinating adventures of activists, and articles about why representation matters.”
Her writing includes essays on activist culture, novels featuring activists, and reviews of activist portrayals in fiction. She works with writers and activists young and old on integrating creative writing into movement building.
Her activism includes friendly trouble-making in a wide range of areas.
My Work with Activist Stories

Collecting
* Stories depicting activists fully and fairly * Stereotyped portrayals of activism that need calling out or calling in * Activists' stories of their own experiences

Creating
* Rainwoood House Sings and my own "movement mysteries" series * Collective novels about making change together

Cultivating
Projects encouraging others to create fiction that fully and fairly represents activists, activist culture, and social change movements

Connecting
Connecting fiction writing and social movements through the writing projects SOOP - Stories Of Our Power--and Neighborhood Novelists.
Read/Watch/Listen
Rainwood House Sings, a Movement Mystery
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Activist Explorer Newsletter
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Articles and Interviews
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Participate and Write Together
Activist Café
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SOOP
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Neighborhood Novelists
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Explorations: Activist Explorer bLog
Folks say good things about Rainwood House Sings



A Title to Turn the Visitor Into a Lead
Activist Explorer Newsletter
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What do Activists Need to Protect Ourselves from?
Why is it so hard for justice to prevail in the world? Why have the unceasing struggles of people around the world to overcome the