With & About is a hybrid organization functioning in two separate parts: a media production company, and a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that exists to fiscally sponsor community groups who are bringing inspired do-ers together. With & About is the brain child of multimedia producer, content creator, director, strategist and media programming developer Natalie Brasington. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Natalie discovered her passion for socially conscious storytelling while photographing and interviewing survivors of Hurricane Katrina during her time as a research assistant for the Silver School of Social Work. Now, with over a decade of media-making behind her, Natalie has combined her passion for seeing the magic in everyone with her career experience to shift dominant culture narratives and confront and dismantle inequitable systems by utilizing the power of media.
Before founding With & About Projects, Natalie photographed celebrities, entertainers, athletes, and CEO's for advertisements, national networks, and global brands, produced photo shoots for world-renouned clients like Grey Advertising, BBDO, Viacom and New Wave Entertainment, among others, produced award-winning short films, and produced and directed short and feature length documentary films. Uniquely equipped with both a media background, and non-profit training in youth trauma, creative workshop facilitation, interviewing techniques, and anti-oppression alignment, Natalie realized she could lend her varied expertise and insight to important causes in need of partnership.
"I work to envision and develop organization-specific methodologies that integrate media into an organization's core service offerings rather than treating it simply as a promotional channel. The social justice, nonprofit, and mainstream entertainment industries can and should have a much more symbiotic relationship.” – Natalie Brasington
As a precursor to With & About, Natalie co-founded the Art Start Portrait Projects with Hannah Immerman and Johanna De Los Santos in 2013. She conceived of the project and built the production model, and, with Anyway Reps, secured key industry sponsors to launch the project into fruition- namely Fast Ashleys (now Smashbox Studios) as a founding partner and equipment sponsor. Natalie also produced the project, interviewed youth participants, directed video content, and photographed participants. This initiative brought together New York’s top-tier photographers and vendors to create portraits with Art Start youth and families and create a platform to explore themes of identity and actualization. In five short years, the project developed into an NEA-endowed multifaceted program and a multi-city ongoing dialogue about representation and self-determination. In 2015, Natalie presented a Ted-X talk about the Art Start Portrait Project.
Natalie has continued the work of centering media subjects as co-creators by leveraging her skills and experiences to offer tools for people to tell their authentic story in a strength-based, narrative-shifting way. She does this in partnership with social service agencies, public entities, community groups and public schools.
Natalie makes her home with her husband and their two daughters in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. She is a passionate member of her Harlem community and strives to be a very good neighbor. She believes that there is no such thing as “other people’s children” and that community and family are everything.