Meet Ava, The Horror Advocate!
The Horror Advocate is Here!
We’re excited to introduce our online community to the work of Ava M. Fields, a writer, researcher, scholar, and poet! She’s got quite a few projects going on, and she needs your help.
Join us in contributing to and sharing this collaborative project and assisting Ava in her research. Check it out and connect with her on Twitter at @nytowlwriting and @ahorroradvocate
The Horror Advocate
Mission: The work is grounded by the intersectionality of horror, equity, compassion; and a commitment to transform the antiquated social structures that feed harm, and starve survival
What Is The Horror Advocate Project?
People think horror films are the villain. That they fuel the nightmares and feed the unrest, but that's a misinterpretation. It is a cipher for those who want to dig deep. It is the loved one who won't let us live a lie.
Our culture wades in manufactured realities, the ones that make us feel safe. The ones that tell us it must always be a happy ending, that playing mind games is just part of love, or that suggests a woman's worth is determined by proposals and center-cut diamonds. But what if that safety is what keeps us trapped? What if we've been duped into believing that avoidance can heal? What if horror is the only friend we've got?
The genre's history is ripe with truths we want to disprove. George Romero took license with Night of the Living Dead (1968), and lead an artistic revolution on the intersectionality of race, region, and the weight of a preconceived notion.
Amy Holden Jones wrote SlumberParty Massacre (1982) in the wake of Ted Bundy and the Hillside Stranglers. She penned a perfectly inverted fairytale, where women faced the promise of violence and used the film to detail how the suggestion that targeted violence is imagined, exaggerated, or dictated by a victim's actions is a real threat. Both understood that Horror is a messenger-- and can speak for itself.
Horror never buries the lead. It reverberates with voices, stories, perspectives, and fringe existences that hold our world accountable. Horror is universal. It's the most profitable genre of film on record and boasts fans from all walks of life. 2021 was a rough year at the box office, but horror maintained its momentum. Its popularity and accessibility make it an untapped data warehouse; designed to eradicate gatekeeping around social, civic, and cultural experiences that thrive on community input.
Apt, Horror amplifies those voices, nullifies gatekeeping around civic involvement, and leverages pop (counter) culture knowledge as a reputable data source.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Audience and Data Group(s): L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+, Student(s), Underemployed, Senior citizens, Military/Combat veterans, Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses, Gamblers, Sexual Assault survivors, Rape survivors, Domestic violence survivors, Substance abusers, Persons on the Autism spectrum, Persons living in poverty, Felons, Undocumented individuals, Women, Girls, (Alternative) Families . Black, Indigenous, + People of Color. Explicitly and implicitly, this project is for the people and communities that have been historically excluded and/or pushed to the borderlands.
Programs/Projects
Apt, Horror
a groundbreaking study that uses pop (counter) culture knowledge as a reputable data source for community development and enhancing civic engagement.
Upcoming Projects
REC Zombie: For those who want to put their fears to use, REC Zombie is a collection of horror film/television titles, descriptions + streaming locations, that weave a tapestry of America's cultural temperature from 1896 to date. REC Zombie is a hybrid archival and advocacy resource project born from commitments to restorative justice, visibility, and radical accountability. Within this project are four programs, REC RETRO Horror Awards, REC Zombie Archive (physical and digital), REC Zombie on demand Film recommendation service, and the REC Zombie Horror Appreciation List. RRHA will reimagine the Academy Awards from 1952-date, detailing what horror films should have been nominated that year, which films would have won, and why. RZ Horror Appreciation List builds on a commitment to recognition.
[Pop] Cult Survivalist
[Pop] Cult Survivalist that will present the public with pop culture myths and then apply film and data to either confirm or disprove.
1st place winner at the Obsidian Wrote and Blavk workspace collaborative’s writing contest or my piece titled: All while you sleep: Jordan Peel, Black bodies, and gift wrapping th black american nightmare. The interview will be released online by Monday evening.
My project ‘From Rumor to Flesh: How Candyman Treats Tragedy in Villainy’ will be featured at this year's 30th-anniversary conference on Candyman(1992). @WholeDamnSwarm
Learn how to build your own online presence as a content creator and project manager with Ava’s helpful guide!
CARVE YOUR PATH: HOW I BUILT MY PRESENCE AS A CREATOR
Learn more about Ava’s Projects with these YouTube Shorts and Video Clips:
Clips from my guest appearance on the cadaver dogs podcast
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT AVA’S WORK?
+Subscribe to my PATREON account
+Help co-host one of our yearly virtual events
+Offer pro-bono services to help cover project costs such as, but not limited to, advertising, trademarking, copyright law, Tech help+ taxes
+Commission me for a writing project and or horror advocacy presentations/appearances
+Sponsor/ Underwrite events and or programming
+Underwrite costs for speakers/presenters
+Promote my project through your podcast, newsletter, and/or website.
+Make an introduction between me and someone you think I should know.
+Mention my name in rooms I'm not in.
Ava M. Fields is a Ghost Writer| Horror Advocate| Researcher| Criminal Behavior Scholar|+ Poet based in Boston, MA. Her horror advocacy work carves out a subversive path for reframing and repurposing, traumatic content as an advocacy resource. The Horror Advocate is an interdisciplinary arthouse grounded by the intersectionality of horror, equity, compassion; and a commitment to transform antiquated social structures that feed harm and starve survival. Her innovative study, Apt, Horror, is a groundbreaking community response resource that uses pop (counter) culture knowledge as a reputable data source.
Recently, she has started development on REC Zombie, a hybrid archival and advocacy resource project that honors the history, and transformative impact of the Horror genre. Her work aims to shift industry standards around antiquated award structures + help reclaim horror's rightful place in cinema history. She hopes people experience as much catharsis engaging with her work as she does by creating it.
