HBC430 is a Black woman founded and led communications and research firm based in New Orleans, serving the South and beyond. We support artists, organizers, and institutions with strategy, structure, and story.
Our work is centered in justice, shaped by experience, and guided by purpose.
Art, Justice + Story
Communications. Research. Creative Strategy. Purposeful Work. Strategic Design.
We work at the intersection of narrative and infrastructure. Whether you are developing a campaign, refining how your team communicates, or launching a new project rooted in community, we build frameworks that are intentional, grounded, and aligned with your goals.
Our practice draws from lived knowledge, collaborative research, and art as method. We partner with clients who are shaping systems, asking better questions, and making long-term change.
What We Offer
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Communications strategy for institutions, campaigns, and movement work
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Vision planning for emerging projects and socially engaged initiatives
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Arts-infused restorative spaces designed for recalibration and reconnection
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Keynotes and public talks on storytelling as data, narrative clarity, and creative freedom
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Facilitation and research support through Instinctive Theater, our original methodology
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Infrastructure and strategy support through Liberate the Data, a collective initiative advancing data sovereignty and research access for Black and community-based thinkers
Our work is built in conversation with those doing the work on the ground. We bring structure where it is needed, reflection where it is overdue, and language that does not dilute the truth.
Maryam Fatima Foye
Founder + Principal Consultant
Maryam Fatima Foye is a multidisciplinary strategist, citizen artist, and founder of HBC430 Creative Programs and Consulting. She brings almost two decades of experience working at the intersection of communications, performance, and research. Her work supports movements, institutions, and independent artists committed to truth-telling, justice, and cultural integrity.
Through HBC430, Maryam has led communications strategy and vision planning for clients ranging from grassroots collectives to national institutions. She is the creator of Instinctive Theater, an arts-integrated research methodology that uses performance to document lived experience and generate qualitative data. She also leads Liberate the Data, a national movement designed to support Black-led research infrastructure, community-based review boards, and data ownership in systemically excluded communities.
Maryam’s practice is deeply rooted in collaborative design and research ethics that center strategically + historically unheard voices. Her past projects have included cross-continental cultural exchanges, policy-informing storytelling, and arts-based convenings across the U.S., South Africa, Senegal, and the United Kingdom. Her work has been supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the South African State Theater.
In addition to her consulting work, Maryam has trained artists and researchers across the diaspora in performance-based research, oral history, and participatory methods. She has facilitated public programs in collaboration with institutions such as Tulane University, NeighborWorks America, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her leadership reflects a deep belief in self-determined storytelling, collective strategy, and the creative conditions needed for liberation.
Maryam is based in New Orleans and serves clients across the South and internationally.
Our Work @ HBC430
At HBC430 Creative Programs and Consulting, our services are organized around three core principles: Dream, Memory, and Vision. Each one represents a mode of working, a way of knowing, and a path forward.
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DREAM
Strategy for what we imagine and build next
Dream is where ideas begin to take shape. This category is for those in the early stages of a project or reimagining how their work moves in the world. We help clients move from vision to clarity, shaping strategies that are grounded, creative, and aligned with purpose.
Services include:
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Communications planning for campaigns and institutions
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Narrative development and message design
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Vision planning for socially engaged projects
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Public speaking and keynotes on creative freedom and storytelling as strategy
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MEMORY
Methods that honor lived experience as knowledge
Memory holds the truth of what has been witnessed and endured. These services focus on documenting stories through arts-integrated research, oral history, and performance. We support clients in collecting lived experience as data, protecting that knowledge, and using it to inform movement and change.
Services include:
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Instinctive Theater facilitation and training
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Participatory research support rooted in performance
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Oral history and documentation consulting
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Ethical data collection through community storytelling
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VISION
Practices that return research power to the people
VISION is about reclaiming authorship, data ownership, and decision making in the research process. Liberate the Data supports artists, organizers, and grassroots researchers in developing their own study practices without requiring institutional approval. This includes navigating certification, building ethical frameworks, and designing strategies to protect and use story as data.
Services include:
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Liberate the Data strategy and movement building
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Guidance for human subjects certification
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Support for independent, community designed research projects
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Training cohorts for artists and organizers working with story as data
