The Sev7nth Circle is a feminist sci-fi thriller about a young woman named ROO (age 23) and an ancient society of women called the Sev7nth Circle. The story unfolds via Instagram and a website (sev7nthcircle.org) and will include real world “events.” Chapter one is about the lost and erased women of science, who will be revealed, at the end of ROO’s quest to open a secret portal. This is basically what Marilyn Oliva, one of its creators, told me early this summer when she asked if I would like to play one of the guardians of the sev7nth circle. We met in a direct action activist group after the 2018 presidential election. I said yes, of course! It’s hard to imagine what storytelling looks like on Instagram and the best way to “get it” is to follow the series through your Instagram account @sev7nthcirle
The creators of the Sev7nth Circle are Marilyn Oliva – an Affiliated Scholar at Fordham University and a freelance archivist, and Jan Libby – writer, designer, and producer of immersive and interactive stories.
The Project: We wanted to tell the story of the women who have been whitewashed from history in a compelling and unusual way. To do this we developed the idea of a limbo-like universe where women from the Humanities, Arts and Sciences languish and wait to be released into the public consciousness. We then created an Instagram series about two young women who go on a sort of personal quest–to discover the whereabouts of one of their mothers–and stumble on a secret society that both guards and seeks the return of these forgotten, lost, and erased women. Instagram is the perfect platform to share the Sev7nth Circle story: it allows us to use a fun combination of content: still images, video, gifs, music, and text to tell our feminist sci-fi thriller and lets followers stay connected to the unfolding story whenever they check into Instagram.
The first episode was posted today. There will be daily posts from now until the story’s finale in October. Turn on the audio and don’t forget to scroll! Let the adventure being @sev7nthcircle
Everyone loves a good story and now there are even more ways to tell them – check out CALA Fall courses, and our certificates, by clicking on the links below:
This sounds FANTASTIC!
It’s revolutionary!