Last year I started this Substack.

Today I wrote my first post.

Sometimes the journey takes time. In that time, things may take shape in multitudes of different ways. I’ve learned the importance of being as patient with myself as I tend to be with others. It may seem rudimentary, but surprisingly or unsurprisingly, it is not.

When there is so much to be done, and there is constant need to do, create, finish, or publish, it can be hard to pause and level-set with yourself about where you are in relation to that work—but what is the work? Why do the work? How do you do the work? Where do you do the work? When do you do the work? All of these essential questions have helped to guide me forward as I type these characters into words, sentences, paragraphs, and more in an ongoing process of defining that work.

My name is Lenny Toussaint, and I am a New York–based digital producer and content creator. My work currently involves examining themes of identity and representation in film and television, in hopes of better understanding our socio-cultural perceptions.

I believe that the current rapidly-evolving digital media ecosystems, namely across social media, web-hosting platforms, and AI, offer a plurality of storytellers the opportunity to connect better with audiences. In my view, multicultural screen-storytelling (coined by film critic and author Ellen E. Jones in Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world, whose book I highly recommend) will further promote social cohesion, reimagine media literacy, and reduce cultural divides and tensions, provided we meet the emerging world with appropriate intentions.

This work is a massive aspirational undertaking for me, and I would imagine over time, it will take many shapes, forms, and names. However, for the purposes of this publication, the work will be entitled Evergreen. The idea is rooted in relevancy. In business, “evergreen content is simply content that doesn’t become outdated”. That said, I aspire to make work that retains its relevancy, but in specific relation to an audience that I align and resonate with.

I am not a writer, and that can be evidenced by the year-long delay in meeting the page for this specific starter post. However, I am creative; I am a big-picture person; I do care about the details. This combination does not always come together efficiently and quickly, but with the right approach, it can come together nicely in the end.

So my vision for this feed is to craft a living collection of work reflecting the spirit and lifecycle of my growth journey as an academic, creative, and filmmaker, or screen-storyteller . This work may include research and curation, as well as original works, including but not limited to, photo and video formats. The Evergreen collection on Substack extends this work through writing—essays, reflections, and field notes exploring identity, multiculturalism, and the evolving architectures of storytelling in the digital age.

Doing this work will require me to meet the page more regularly, as a writing practice, to exercise my approach in expression. I want to share my thoughts on things that inspire me, things that unnerve me, things that challenge me, and help me to see things in different ways. I also want to be challenged in ways that help me to identify which battles are worth fighting for me—what hills I would die on, what opinions I hold closer than fact. This is timely for me, as I am at the end of an MA Degree and developing a thesis arguing for access to storytelling pathways, and emphasis on media literacy prioritized in education policy, as essential steps to a civic plurality that can foster peace and resiliency in the face of threats.

This place serves as a test kitchen for analysis and questions, and helps to track my progress along the way. I invite you, the reader, to join me so long as you are interested in the topics I will explore across culture, and representation across our digital media structures, including the related dynamic between audience members and storytellers competing for eyeballs and clicks.

Ultimately, I want this to also be a space where I can grow, both in my academic and creative practices, and I want to prioritize engaging others whom I trust, to engage thoughtfully with this work. Over time, I look forward to increasingly opening myself up to others even more broadly, along with any feedback that may come as I navigate through questions rooted in these aspects of culture and identity, film and television, media and viewership, and so much in this era of rapidly evolving digital media landscapes

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