Building Our Own Table: Jad-Évangelo Nasser

Hello {{ first name | friends}},

It’s time to kick off our 2025 interview series, and I’m excited to introduce Jad-Évangelo Nasser, who came to my attention late last year. I love his global, multicultural, intersectional perspective. Please meet Jad-Évangelo…

Jad-Évangelo, tell me briefly about your background prior to founding J-É Cultural Consulting

I am a multilingual (French, Arabic, Spanish, Haitian Creole) global inclusion specialist with international experience in cross-cultural communication, film, media, advertising and Higher Education.

I identify as a "Globalist", a national of Lebanon with Palestinian roots and a cultural heritage connection to Haiti who has traveled and lived in different places around the world. The multicultural world is my classroom and my core learning experience.

Having graduated from Parsons with a MA in Digital Storytelling, in 2018, I wrote, produced, and directed “Once Upon A Color” (now streaming on Prime Video), a musical documentary highlighting artists of color as they navigate through the world. I have developed multicultural strategies for campaigns in the Middle East, North African, European and North American markets before starting my own independent agency. My client portfolio includes Jack Daniels, McDonalds, NISSAN, Lulu Lemon, Pepsi Co.

I currently teach cross cultural communication, multi-cultural marketing, and advertising at Morris Brown College, South University, West Virginia University and the University of North Texas and have given lectures and keynotes at NYU, Malcom X College, Black Men in Education Convening Conference. I was featured in Top30Under30 with Arab America, The Black Wall Street Times and Empower Atlanta. I also serve as the co-chair of the LGBTQ Institute at The Center for Civil & Human Rights.

Being an ADCOLOR 2024 Leader recipient and TEDx Speaker on "Cultural Curiosity", my area(s) of expertise is focused on utilizing intersectionality as a tool for bridging cross-cultural connections and empowering inclusive narratives of global professionals from around the world to advance businesses, communities and freedom of expression forward.

Give me the elevator pitch for J-É Cultural Consulting

J-É is my independent one-person agency that focuses on incorporating global inclusion, cross-cultural practices and intersectional experiences within organizational change, social justice campaigns, public conversations and educational curriculums.

And in more detail?

J-É Cultural Consulting focuses on creative ways of approaching business projects from workplace inclusion, equity practices, organizational behavior and change management to social justice campaigns, inclusive marketing content, educational programs and public talks with a one-of-kind strategy that involves:

Acknowledging global narratives and multicultural learning.
Analyzing intersectional identities, experiences and narratives.
Amplifying cross-cultural connections & dynamics.

What inequity were you trying to address, and why is this important?

"Cultural Segregation" is a framework indirectly yet purposefully created by dominant colonial entities to separate cultures from each other and box them within their own borders. Hence there is a lack of understanding, learning, empathy and immersions of cultures from each other around the world and even in cosmopolitan areas such as NYC, LA, London, Montreal etc. There also seems to be a lack of understanding about the "spectrum of treatment" within society. The more proximity a person has to whiteness and supremacy, the better they will be treated navigating this world, yet the more proximity one has to Blackness and Justice, the worse they will be treated in society.

Cultural Curiosity is a a tool that I have come across and coined so people can understand that it is necessary to get uncomfortable and face our fears of the "foreigner". We need to learn, integrate, de-center ourselves, allow other cultures to educate us, become students of this world while bringing our authentic cultural elements to the forefront and bridge them with others while understanding and acknowledging concepts such as Colorism, Gender Dynamics, Queer Identities.

Our cross-cultural integration should be beyond the superficial, beyond the food, the music, the dance. We should connect with the stories and histories of the world (Haitian Revolution, Displacement in Sudan, Palestinian Liberation, Civil Rights in America, Sub-Saharan Slave Trade etc) and empower our relationships to move forward and enhance socio-economic change.

How’s it going? What has the response been?

Ever since the release of my TEDx Talk "Can Cultural Curiosity End Cultural Segregation?" that tackles this issue, the response has been quite overwhelming, with a lot of engagement on social media and outreach from partners, clients, community fellows, friends and families from within the US and outside about this message and how needed it was/is. There are current plans of doing keynotes, presentations and consultations on this topic with upcoming collaborators. I feel immensely proud not of myself only but that the message is spreading and people are shifting and redirecting their mindsets to do and be better.

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What’s next for J-É Cultural Consulting?

Currently I am having conversations with potential clients, partners and individuals about developing keynotes that tackle specific topics within that realm. Planning to be featured on podcasts and op eds. I do not see myself as a "company" but more of an independent agent with a message and a specialty and I am open to the discovery of "Who wants to use that specialty to tackle existing issues within their environment?" So I am simply letting the message from the TEDx and the reviews/testimonials of my work do the talking and the outreach. I definitely would love to produce and host a reality show on uplifting hidden communities within the US and around the world sometime in the future

In relation to racism, what is your vision for the future?

I would love to say that I am hopeful things will get better and people would realize more and more that they have to let go of this "disease" that exists within many of us. I will say that I am noticing a thirst for "liberation" and "being liberated".

Speaking of personal experience, I am someone who at least tries to live in my pure unfiltered authentic self everywhere I go without giving too much care to be accepted or celebrated in any space as long as I speak words of truth and reality. It has become infectious and I have been getting praise from my community.

I can confirm that those who are not willing to change will never be changed and we shouldn't invest anti-racist activism energy on people or entities who do not want to be changed and make sure we keep ourselves and our communities (specially those who live at the margins and at the extreme end line of Blackness x Justice) safe. Instead we should guide those who are curious to change and encourage them to do the work in their positions of power and authority to fight against racism.

Well, I’m inspired, and I hope you are too. Please connect with Jad-Évangelo on his website, on LinkedIn and on Instagram, and watch his TED Talk linked above.

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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