Listening to someone tell a story about their life has moved me and shifted my perspective, many times. Like hearing the South African sex worker, Sibongile, holding up a spoon, telling of her pride at being able to put food on the table for her family, and her worry about what they’d think if they knew where the money came from. Our individual stories and the collective narratives we share, carry deep truths. They are powerful. But it’s a power that has often been neglected. My work is all about helping people and organizations understand and use the power of listening, story, narrative and creativity, to transform systems and create a more just world for us all.
I'm Brett Davidson
About Wingseed
The South American Tipuana or Tipu tree, with its striking yellow flowers, is prominent on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, where I grew up. Its distinctive one-seeded fruit has a large wing that causes it to spin like a helicopter blade, as it drifts away from the tree. The seeds can travel quite a distance. As a child, I gathered the fallen seeds and flung them back up into the air to see how far they would fly. In the Northeastern US, where I live now, the smaller but similarly shaped maple seeds remind me of that time. For me, the name Wingseed connects the different phases of my life and my career, across the globe. Wingseed is about connection, fertility and creativity – spreading and seeding ideas, helping them grow and bear fruit. Wingseed works withfoundations, nonprofits and individuals to creatively connect ideas and people and resources. Together, we bring about transformation – in the stories we tell about ourselves and others, in how we see the world, and how we relate to one another.​
Professional Summary
I am a New York-based strategist working with foundations and nonprofits interested in using the power of narrative and creativity for social transformation. For over a decade I led an international team at the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program, using creative strategies to transform unjust systems impacting the health of people facing systemic racism, stigma and discrimination. With our support, Roma feminist actors in Romania used experimental theatre to challenge longstanding stereotypes, and creative campaigning by British doctors prevented the the National Health Service from sharing migrants’ personal data with immigration authorities.
Our workshops helped health activists think more like artists, so they could reach far more people and move them to action with humor and public spectacles. We organized trainings for sex workers and drug users and people living with HIV in Kenya, Turkey, South Africa and Ukraine, so they could use strategic storytelling to push for better laws and policies. We funded the Sex Workers’ Opera, which played to rave reviews in London, and produced an award-winning documentary - From Durban to Tomorrow - highlighting AIDS activism around the world.
Before joining OSF, I was a media consultant to civil society organizations across Southern and Eastern Africa. I trained budding citizen journalists in blogging and social media skills. I helped plan a media stunt that got the governments of Kenya and Uganda to commit to ending medicine shortages in public clinics. I went into consulting after working as a program manager at the South African democracy institute IDASA, where I helped community radio stations develop participatory news and current affairs programming and improve their reporting on local government. And before that, I was a presenter and producer in radio current affairs at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and in collaboration with the BBC World Service. My show, PM Live, was the South African equivalent of All Things Considered on National Public Radio in the U.S.
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“Brett brings the mind of a strategist, the soul of an activist, and the savvy of a trained journalist to help people frame challenging issues and make change. I have seen him work his magic with the smallest NGOs and with large, established institutions. For me and others with long experience in public health, he has also been the best kind of teacher—kind, creative, adaptive and reminding us all of the incredible power of narrative to inspire action and reimagine the possible."
- Daniel Wolfe: Director, community health and criminal justice, OSF (2017-2021)
