Allied Media Projects is a critical race theory-aligned umbrella network of media organizations based or active in Detroit, Michigan. It is notable for previously coordinating the now-defunct Allied Media Conference from 2002 to 2023. Its advocacy counterpart is the Allied Media Action Fund.
In 1999, the Midwest Zine Conference was founded in Bowling Green, Ohio, to convene annual conferences for left-wing alternative magazines and media organizations based in the area. In 2002, the conference was renamed the Allied Media Conference and Allied Media Projects was registered as a charitable organization to serve as an umbrella organization to coordinate the conference’s annual gathering. According to its website, the activity and aims of the conference were shaped by the Black Power, Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, and Black Liberation movements, among others. 1
In 2007, the Allied Media Conference was moved to align with the Allied Media Projects moving its base of operations and focus to Detroit, Michigan, to reflect the organization’s changing membership. 1
In 2019, the conference did not meet. The next year, the organization conducted the Allied Media Conference virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the conference met for the last time and Allied Media Projects announced that the annual gathering had reached a “sunset.” 1
Though Allied Media Projects no longer coordinates the annual Allied Media Conference, it remains an umbrella membership and fiscal sponsorship organization. 1
Membership and Activity
Allied Media Projects provides both fiscal sponsorship and administrative support to its member organizations, which include the Decolonizing Wealth Project, Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, Intelligent Mischief, Seraphine Collective, Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives, Shrine of the Black Medusa, Petty Propolis, Project Hajra, Aadizookaan, The Remedy: Afrosonic Liberation Sessions, Bklyn Boihood, Trangender Oral History Project, Long Hairz Collective, Lifewerq Project, Racial Imaginary Institute, Espicy Nipples, and Conspiracy of Geniuses. 2
MacArthur Foundation
Between 2017 and 2023, the MacArthur Foundation made 22 grants to Allied Media Projects and its member organizations, totaling $9,111,000. Particularly large grants to member organizations during this period include $3,000,000 to the Decolonizing Wealth Project, $450,000 to the Kairos Fellowship, $200,000 to A People’s Guide Press, and $150,000 to the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective. 3
Allied Media Action Fund
The Allied Media Project’s 501(c)(4) advocacy counterpart, the Allied Media Action Fund, was founded in 2020. According to its filings with the Internal Revenue Service, its net assets at its founding were $558,194 and by 2022 had roughly doubled to $1,017,443. 4
Leadership
Toni Moceri is the executive director of Allied Media Projects. She joined the organization in 2016 as the director of its Sponsored Projects Program. Previously, she served as a Macomb County Commissioner, representing residents around Warren, Michigan, for three terms, from 2009 to 2014. 5
Shatona Holcomb is the director of people and culture for Allied Media Projects. Previously, Holcomb founded and led the Holcomb Consulting Group, a human resources consulting firm; worked as the director of talent and culture at Edsel and Eleanor Ford House; and held other human resources and admissions roles at companies including Avalon International Breads, Ignite Social Media, Campbell Ewald, and the University of Michigan. 6
Moya Bailey is the president of the board of directors of the Allied Media Projects as well as an assistant professor of Africana studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Northeastern University, and a “digital alchemist” for the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network. As of 2024, Bailey curates the #transformDH Tumblr initiative in Digital Humanities. 7
MacKenzie Scott made an unrestricted grant of $6,000,000 to Allied Media Projects. Mission: Allied Media Projects cultivates media for liberation. Our liberation is an ongoing process of personal, collective, and systemic transformation. Together, we grow and exchange ways of using media to create the world we need.
To provide strategic support to over 12 diverse California Tribal land trusts as they further equitable systems and practices for longer-term adaptation, recovery and rebuilding by applying Indigenous wisdom and land management practices to heal; transition built and natural systems and social infrastructure to be resilient and sustainable; and support community restoration, stewardship, health and ultimately ownership of land, soil and water through community ownership, governance and care.
To support 18MillionRising, a project of the grantee that seeks to increase nonpartisan civic engagement among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and work towards equal justice and liberation for all
Core support for the Transforming Power Fund that prioritizes community governance, donor organizing, and social justice values to model a more equitable approach to philanthropy
To fund the Decolonizing Wealth Project to identify, test, and measure the impact of narratives that uplift Black and Indigenous caregivers, children, and families in ways that shift mindsets toward their deservingness of resources.
Support for Allied Media Projects Decolonizing Wealth Project. $1.5M over three years for the California Truth and Healing Pooled Fund to provide truth and healing grants to California Native American tribes and organizations. Funding includes a direct contribution to the pooled fund and to support the administration and distribution of the pooled fund
Core support for the Decolonizing Wealth Project to disrupt existing systems of moving and controlling capital through education, radical reparative giving, and narrative change
To support long-term engagement with the State of California to support Native and Indigenous communities in the state; build their capacity for civic engagement, power-building and racial justice; and support the promotion of a new narrative for Native and Indigenous communities.
Core support for Detroit Narrative Agency's creative visual storytelling to transform prevailing narratives about Detroit, build power within marginalized communities, and advance social justice
Core support for the LOVE Building project to provide office space to organizations dedicated to removing specific barriers faced by people with disabilities, people returning from prison, and people using media, art, and technology for social justice
To provide project support for the LOVE Building campus, a creative community hub and restorative justice space for the Core City Neighborhood in Detroit.
$832,500
2022
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc
PROJECT SUPPORT
All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:
Total Grant Value:$30,824,819
Number of Grants:208
Number of Recipients:133
Selection of highest value grants given from the last seven years:
"WE ARE READY TO RELEASE/TRANSFER THE TOTAL BALANCE OF DECOLONIZING WEALTH'S GRANT FROM FORD (FRD047 — INTERNAL DETAILS ATTACHED) OF $808,901.40 BACK TO FORD AT THE FOLLOWING WIRE INFO:"
TO ACHIEVE A CLEAN, HEALTHY, AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR MICHIGAN RESIDENTS MOST AFFECTED BY INADEQUATE POLICIES. WE WORK IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, AND CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS BASED ON THE JEMEZ PRINCIPLES. WE BUILD POWER AND UNITY WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY, SO WE ALL CAN THRIVE.
TO BE -REGRANTED AS DIRECT CASH PAYMENTS TO INDIGENOUS FAMILIES FOR COVID-19 RELIEF
$99,395
2022
Linke Fligl
THE LAND-BASED CULTURAL WORK AS CRITICAL PRACTICE TO BUILD A MORE JUST WORLD. WE CREATED SPACE TO RECLAIM OUR INHERENT CONNECTION TO LAND, TRADITION AND EACH OTHER WHILE CONFRONTING LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM, ANTISEMITISM AND ASSIMILATION.
$90,028
2024
House Aquemini
GRANTOR/ GRANTEE PAYOUTS
$71,672
2022
Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative
TO ADDRESS THE INTERSECTIONS OF ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA THROUGH REGULAR PROGRAMMING IN DETROIT AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND PROVIDING REGULAR VIRTUAL BUILDING SPACES AND MEMBER-LED GATHERINGS.
$70,000
2024
Multiple North America Recipients
CRITICAL MINDED, A FISCALLY SPONSORED PROJECT OF ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS, HAS AWARDED MOMUS A RENEWAL GRANT OF $50,000 FOR MOMUS'S RESIDENCY AND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMMING
WILL IMPLEMENT THE ADVANCING DETROIT'S "RIGHT RELATIONSHIP AESTHETIC PROJECT AS DETAILED IN THE ACCEPTED GRANT PROPOSAL, AND WILL SUPPORT A NETWORK OF CULTURAL ORGANIZERS TO DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS AND CREATE A DETROIT BASED FESTIVAL TO UPLIFT CULTURE CREATION AS A FORM OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER.
MENA activism refers to individuals and organizations that seek to influence policy and opinion regarding issues related to the Middle East and North Africa region,…
