Tina Haver Currin

Tina Haver Currin has used her combined skills in writing and advertising—as well as a generally irreverent attitude—to launch several campaigns for social justice. Saturday Chores, which started in 2013 as a way to lampoon so-called “pro-life sidewalk counselors,” went viral and inspired similar efforts across the world by using humor as a way to change protest rhetoric. It earned attention in Cosmopolitan, USA Today, Elle, and more, and was named one of 2014’s “best moments for women” by The Huffington Post.

More recently, the Air Horn Orchestra—a motley crew that met outside of the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion to make actual noise about the state’s regressive politics—has earned international attention, with mention in The New York Times, The Guardian, and BBC. The seven-month-long protest culminated in a Guinness World Record attempt for Most Air Horns Sounded Simultaneously, which was achieved on November 2, 2016. Meanwhile, Tina’s organization, North Carolina Needs You, also launched in response to HB 2, has helped turn potential boycotts by the likes of Mumford & Sons, Duran Duran, and the Dave Matthews Band into benefits for progressive causes and vulnerable communities in North Carolina. Tina’s mission is to share the idea that existing systems of political protest are outdated—and strategies for how we must update them in order to have an impact.