Hammer and Hope is a far-left digital magazine that promotes a variety of far-left and left-of-center political stances and ideologies regarding economic and racial issues. The magazine was founded by Jen Parker and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and is a project of the New Venture Fund, a funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit that makes grants to left-of-center advocacy and organizing projects and provides incubation services for other left-of-center organizations.

New Venture Fund is managed by Arabella Advisors, a left-of-center consultancy that has operated hundreds of left-of-center advocacy projects through the network of nonprofit organizations it manages. Hope and Hammer promotes many themes promoted by the Black Lives Matter movement and is funded by multiple left-of-center grantmaking foundations including the Ford Foundation and the Marguerite Casey Foundation. ^{1 2 3}

Background

Hammer and Hope was created as a digital magazine operated by the New Venture Fund in 2023. It was launched with grants supporting the organization made to the New Venture Fund in 2022 to support the development of what was called at the time the “Black Radical Project Digital Magazine,” which according to a grant from the Ford Foundation would “deliver exclusive essays, first-person columns, historical articles, and thought pieces directly to the inboxes of its subscribers.” In 2022, the Black Radical Project, Inc. filed a trademark application for the name Hammer and Hope indicating the trademark should cover “categories of downloadable electronic media, namely, books, stories, and videos to provide commentary and academic analysis in the fields of economic inequality, racial discrimination, and art and culture.” ^{4 5}

The magazine’s founders and co-editors are Jen Parker, a former New York Times opinion editor, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an African-American history professor and activist affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement who published the book From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation in 2016. ^{6 7}

Ideology

Hammer and Hope states that it is inspired by black members of the Communist Party in Alabama during the 1930s and 1940s who were profiled in Robin D. G. Kelley’s book Hammer and Hoe, from which the magazine’s name is inspired. The magazine’s publishers, in their initial article introducing the publication, also stated that the publication was “indebted” to the Black Panthers. ⁸

The magazine is also closely tied to the Black Lives Matter movement and promotes far-left ideologies associated with race and economics. The founders of the magazine stated that “we live in a time of catastrophe” further stating that “Tyre Nichols screamed for his mother as cops in Memphis beat him to death.” And that “capitalism accelerates the climate crisis — as flash floods wash away towns, and the elderly and disabled people die first during otherworldly heat waves.” ⁹

The editors of the magazine further praised Black Lives Matter protestors in the summer of 2020, stating that “Millions of people rebelled after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 […] They risked their lives during a deadly pandemic to call for collective care, for an end to evictions, for reinvesting police budgets into housing for all—demands situated in a critique of capitalism.” ¹⁰

The magazine expressed plans to publish four times per year and to hire additional full-time staff in 2023. ¹¹

Funding

Hammer & Hope is operated by the New Venture Fund, a left-of-center pass-through funding and fiscal-sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors. While donors to the magazine are not made public by the publication, news reports and  tax filings indicate that among the left-of-center grantmaking foundations funding the magazine are the Libra Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation gave the project $750,000 in 2022 as part of its “creativity and free expression program.” ^{12 13}

1. About.” Hammer and Hope. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://hammerandhope.org/about
2. McClain, Dani. “This New Magazine Aims to Be a Home for the Black Left.” The Nation. April 11, 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hammer-and-hope-black-left/
3. “Core support for The Black Radical Project Digital Magazine to deliver exclusive essays, first-person columns, historical articles, and thought pieces directly to the inboxes of its subscribers.” Ford Foundation Grants Database. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/new-venture-fund-143219/
4. “Hammer & Hope Application #97274392.” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Accessed August 7, 2023.  https://uspto.report/TM/97274392
5. “Core support for The Black Radical Project Digital Magazine to deliver exclusive essays, first-person columns, historical articles, and thought pieces directly to the inboxes of its subscribers.” Ford Foundation Grants Database. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/new-venture-fund-143219/
6. “Bio.” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.keeangataylor.com/bio.html
7. Parker, Jen and Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “HAMMER & HOPE: TOWARD A RADICAL NEW FUTURE.” Hammer & Hope. Issue 1. Winter 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023.  https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-2
8. Parker, Jen and Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “HAMMER & HOPE: TOWARD A RADICAL NEW FUTURE.” Hammer & Hope. Issue 1. Winter 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023.  https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-2
9. Parker, Jen and Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “HAMMER & HOPE: TOWARD A RADICAL NEW FUTURE.” Hammer & Hope. Issue 1. Winter 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023.  https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-2
10. Parker, Jen and Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “HAMMER & HOPE: TOWARD A RADICAL NEW FUTURE.” Hammer & Hope. Issue 1. Winter 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023.  https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-2
11. McClain, Dani. “This New Magazine Aims to Be a Home for the Black Left.” The Nation. April 11, 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hammer-and-hope-black-left/
12. “Core support for The Black Radical Project Digital Magazine to deliver exclusive essays, first-person columns, historical articles, and thought pieces directly to the inboxes of its subscribers.” Ford Foundation Grants Database. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/new-venture-fund-143219/
13. McClain, Dani. “This New Magazine Aims to Be a Home for the Black Left.” The Nation. April 11, 2023. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hammer-and-hope-black-left/