Liz Johnson wants to dissolve the misconceptions that come with labels and gender norms, and she’s doing it with other people’s voices. Cognizant Folk is the end product, borne out of the Innovator Fellowship, a collaboration between Sheboygan’s North High School and a neighborhood café. Johnson also helped to create the fellowship.
The short addresses gender-normative terms like “mother” and loaded concepts like “culture” with both literal definitions and, more importantly, the opinions and experiences of North High’s students and faculty. This past May, Johnson screened Cognizant Folk before an audience at UW-Sheboygan, and it’s available in its entirety on YouTube: