Bio

 
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Hey, It’s Ahsante!

Ahsante Bean is a multimedia storytelling strategist.

Her work focuses on using online video, digital media, and social platforms to build community, increase empathy, and create a more informed public.

Ahsante helps mission-driven brands and media companies develop informative, insightful content to reach digital-first audiences. Ahsante offers consulting services and public speaking in addition to being an independent content creator. She is currently developing a series about the philosophy of American democracy as an Us@250 Fellow with New America.

For the past decade, she has produced videos for her YouTube channel “Ahsante the Artist,” where she documents her journey and encourages her audience to move consciously and creatively through life. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, MSNBC, The Root, and in the Museum of the Moving Image.

Previously, Ahsante was Editor of Video Strategy at The Poynter Institute, where she led VidSpark, a program in partnership with the Google News Initiative focused on developing innovative social media video content with local newsrooms to reach younger audiences. She also led video strategy and supervised production for PolitiFact, the largest political fact-checking organization in the United States.

Prior to Poynter, Ahsante was Associate Director of Programming at PBS Digital Studios where she worked on a slate of 20 educational online video series. There she created Say It Loud, a series celebrating Black history and culture. She has also worked in Children’s Programming at WGBH, and as a multimedia storyteller at the global design firm IDEO.  

Ahsante holds a B.A. in Film & Video from Harvard University. She’s currently based in Washington, D.C.


Awards & Recognitions

 

National Edward R. Murrow Award

For continuing coverage of George Floyd’s death, with The Star Tribune

2021


Inaugural YouTube Black Voices Grant

2021



VidCon Featured Creator, Speaker, Advisor

The largest conference in online video

2015-2019


Webby Award Nominee

Executive Producer, for Nourish with Louisiana Public Broadcasting

2019


YouTube NextUp Award

2018


The Museum of the Moving Image

Featured film in "The New Genres: Video in the Internet Age” exhibit, NYC

2018


Project For Awesome Featured Guest & Board Member

2018


Girl Scout Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, Lifetime Member


Past Production Partners

 

The Google News Initiative

KQED (San Francisco Public Media)

PolitiFact

WNET (New York Public Media)

Louisiana Public Broadcasting

Microsoft

WGBH (Boston Public Media)

The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune

10 Tampa Bay (WTSP)

KLRU (Austin Public Media), and several others