We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Justine Broughal and Maryam Shariat Mudrick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Justine below.

Justine and Maryam, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Justine remembers planning her first event around the age of 5, “I was always inviting people over for something I was planning – tea and a fashion show; lunch and a performance. But it was always rooted in hosting folks and showing them a good time.” Over time the connection became about using those gatherings as a force for good. In high school she planned a fundraiser to raise money for refugees from the Burundian genocide. As Justine grew up, her connection to hosting and gatherings came from her connection to faith communities. It was in this community that she realized event planning could be a job – not just a thing she was good at, but something people really valued and something she could use to support her creativity and fund her lifestyle. But in 2013 when the Supreme Court made their decision on the Defence of Marriage Act it all changed for her. The church she spent so much time building community for and with came out hard against DOMA and she couldn’t get past the cognitive dissonance of a community rooted in love and justice that was being so harshly exclusionary to people who wanted to come together in love. Confronting this disregard for queer love in her church helped illuminate Justine’s own queerness and desire to make sure every event she created, every space she designed, was a safe and supportive container for folks.

For Maryam her connection to gatherings also started very early – “My mother was a consummate hostess. Even the littlest detail of family gatherings was thoughtfully considered. And I understood very early that how we gather and host is extremely powerful to the meaning we make with each other.” In Maryam’s story it wasn’t a particular community that brought her passion for gathering to the surface. She was moved by watching people gather and seeing what a gift it was for them to gather without stress. As a middle child and only girl in the family organizing the details and clearing the logistical barriers was second nature since childhood. Her penchant for, what she referred to since her teen years as “creative problem solving” quickly made itself known as a highly desirable and marketable asset as she transitioned into traditional employment during and after college.

For both Justine and Maryam it was a series of events where barriers that seemed to halt others in their tracks were exciting problems to solve for their creative brains. Compound that with a persistent desire to always speak out and stand up for folks who fight for dignity and inclusion and you’ll get Greater Good Events.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

At the core of our work is a desire to create a greater good by aligning our everyday values – a deep belief in dignity and welcoming; an understanding that climate change is real; and active engagement in our own responsibilities in perpetuating white supremacy – to the gatherings and celebrations we design. This shows up as prioritizing work with those whose values and practices align with ours so that our world building contributes to collective growth. We are not perfect in our work, but we actively engage with what it means to do better, and hope we’re learning with each interaction.

We are inspired by folks who live their values of dignity, equity and liberation despite the risks to their personal safety and success. When we are confronted with conflict, harm, and injustice every day, it reinforces our belief that it’s necessary to speak clearly about who we are and what we believe – that the liberation of BIPOC and Queer communities is what will free us all and that though there may be no ethical consumption under capitalism, that does not absolve us as individuals of the responsibility we hold in the choices we make. It’s that power that we aim to harness and collectively navigate as we plan and guide gatherings.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

There are two big things we think would fundamentally shift a thriving ecosystem for artists and creatives:
1) Embracing and practicing an abundance mindset; and
2) Operating with kindness as an active mentality in all things.

So much of what limits an expansive and inclusive definition of success is when we assume there is a limit to the goodness available in our world. If we were able to approach creativity and our definitions to success with the assumption that there is enough for everyone to achieve their definition of success, And when we stop pitting our success against a measure of someone else’s, we create space for folks to define success on their own terms.

Part of doing this requires a willingness to participate in an active form of kindness – to be gracious when someone may not show up as their best selves; to know that boundaries are a generous form of communication; and to acknowledge that everyone has the right to forge their own path (and that path can be uniquely their own).

More tactically, this means shifting resources around to ensure that all people have access to basic safety; security; and the space to imagine their best futures.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

From the beginning of our professional journeys we’ve aspired to create inclusive, socially conscious gatherings and celebrations that disrupt the heteronormative, hierarchical, western imperialist, ableist and oppressive traditions of the wedding industry. We celebrate partnership, not patriarchy and ensure our clients, collaborators, and colleagues are not only welcomed to engage their full selves in the planning process, but are actively invited to do so.

We aim to normalize whole-person interactions in the events industry. This looks like making space for our clients’ emotional and intellectual needs as much as their aesthetic desires as they navigate their planning; actively seeking out and building community with radical (both actively engaged with progressive systems change and individually excellent) vendors and collaborators who use their platforms and power for greater purpose; not making assumptions about every interaction we have; and inviting curiosity and understanding through every step and in every relationship we hold. We hope that by bringing intentional and equitable sourcing and contracting in the events industry, we contribute to an industry where BIPOC-owned, queer-owned, disabled- and neurodivergent-owned, and sustainability-oriented businesses are able to thrive, and all marriers, particularly those who regularly encounter oppression in their daily lives, are able to be better served by folks who understand their needs acutely. We are not perfect in our work, and we operate ourselves with a TON of privilege, but we actively engage with what it means to do better, and hope we’re learning and coming into greater alignment with every interaction.

We work alongside our clients to align their vision and values with where they’re spending their money. Events are a huge investment, and there is power in spending our dollars intentionally to uplift our communities through values-aligned businesses who actively engage with questions bigger than themselves. For us, it’s not about less is more, it’s about more intention is more. So even if we are doing La Hora Loca, we’re trying to buy our party materials from a local store rather than a big box retailer. We always enjoy working with vendors in the industry that we know well, but our priority is finding the right vendor that aligns with our clients’ values and personal identities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greatergoodevents.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greatergood.events/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greatergoodevents
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/greater-good-events-new-york

Image Credits

Jenna Bascome, Kamila Harris, Jesus Iniguez, Annie Klebanoff, Tanya Isaeva, John Dolan, Debbie-jean Lemonte