The Creative Collective NYC and Acast announce winner of CultureCon’s ‘For The Culture Podcast PitchFest’

The Creative Collective NYC and Acast announce Joi Louviere as the winner of the ‘For The Culture Podcast PitchFest’, a podcast pitch competition that took place on June 13, 2021 at this year’s CultureCon At Home event. Louviere was awarded first place for her proposal for Werk Stories, a podcast about the experiences of women of color in the workplace.

CultureCon — The Creative Collective NYC’s annual conference built for and by creatives of color — took place on the virtual stage this year as CultureCon At Home, offering a digital-first destination for inspiring conversations, break-out rooms, one-on-one chats, mentorship office hours, and skill-building workshops. The event featured a speaker lineup of star talent, including Saweetie, Naomi Campbell, Billy Porter, Michael B. Jordan, Chloe x Halle, Regina Hall, Ziwe, and others. More than 18,000 people attended the conference.

As part of the event, its first-ever ‘For The Culture Podcast PitchFest’ — which was sponsored by podcast company Acast — invited creatives to submit proposals for podcast ideas, including a thorough series plan and an audio sample, for the opportunity to win a podcast starter kit: a laptop, a microphone, free podcast hosting with Acast for one year, audio editing software, and office hours with an Acast team member.

Following more than 40 submissions, four finalists were selected to present their podcast proposal on the virtual CultureCon At Home stage in front of a panel of judges: Naomi Ekperigin, co-host of Couples Therapy and of I Love A Lifetime Movie; Mouse Jones, co-host of Guys Next Door; and Tiffany Ashitey, director of partnerships at Acast.

In winner Louviere’s words: “Werk Stories is a home for women of color to share their workplace experiences. Unfiltered, this space lends itself as a supportive community for the shocking realities of melanated employees everywhere.”

Added Acast’s Ashitey: “There are so many wonderful podcast ideas out there that haven’t been made into shows yet — most often because of a lack of resources and support. It was so important to us to launch the PitchFest with CultureCon in order to give creators with stories a platform to tell them.

“What makes podcasts so powerful is that they can elevate stories often overlooked in other media spaces and bring them to audiences who are looking for those stories. We can’t wait for Joi to start doing the same.”

Learn more about Louviere’s work and the Werk Stories project by visiting https://www.werkstories.com/