Lifestyle Archives - Page 18 of 22

November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

Philly Celebrates Black Sci-Fi and Afrofuturism Through November with Charity Ball, Film Screenings, Workshops and More

One of the beautiful things about Afrofuturistic and Black nerd culture seems to be the fact that you can enter it from any point or perspective. Afrofuturism, whether applied retrospectively to the works of Sun Ra or used as a creative medium in the here and now, tracks what the future looks like across time, from various points and locations. If you apply the lens correctly, it can connect you to the speculative future from the imaginative standpoint of a Black woman writer by the name of Octavia Butler, born in California in 1947, or help you envision the future formed from the liberation philosophies of a political activist by the name of Marcus Garvey, born in Jamaica in 1887. Afrofuturism, in my opinion, functions as an open-source free space, where people can self-identify as Afrofuturists, craft their own modes of practice from some core, general principles, and participate in their own ways – either individually and/or as part of the broader community of Afrofuturists.

For the past four years, I have experienced the multifaceted expression of Afrofuturism through an event that I curate in Philadelphia called The AfroFuturist Affair Charity & Costume Ball. At the annual ball, we celebrate and bring awareness to this culture with a showcase of self-identified Afrofuturistic visual artists, musicians, performers and authors who all use the Black speculative imagination as vehicles for their work. Artists featured at the ball are diverse in their theories, topics and modes of expression, but all of their work embody common Afrofuturistic elements – tapping into our ancestral memory, while envisioning our personal and collective futures as African-descended people.

This year, the annual AfroFuturist Affair Charity & Costume Ball has expanded space-time from one evening to a monthlong celebration of Afrofuturism. In addition to the fourth annual costume ball on Saturday, Nov. 8, we will have events throughout November, including workshops, a dance party, readings, film screenings, art exhibits and a punk rock show, all exploring the theme of Black Holographic Memory, the collective unconscious memory of Black people throughout time and space contained within each individual, passed down through our shared ancestry. It is a conscious activation of ancestral memory through music and art.

The kickoff event will feature bodypainting, pop-up photoshoot, and live music and performance art from experimental group Visibly Inflight, hip-hop group Ganja Goons, soul and folk group Violet Marley, producer and musician Marlo Reynolds, experimental artist Moor Mother Goddess, author James L. Hampton III, performers from Cirque Mannik, poet Joy KMT, DJ and producer Wino Willy, experimental sound project Nyfolt, musician and artist John Wesley Moon, spoken word artist Warren C. Longmire, and hip-hop artist Sindian. This event will take place at Impact Hub in North Philly, which will also host a monthlong exhibition of Afrofuturist artwork, with pieces from Noni Red, Omi Urban Gypsy, Nyfolt, Selam Bekele, John Moon and Dezz Archie. At the Indigenous Futures afterparty on the same night, we will have DJ Haram, DJ PreColumbian, and DJ Nolita Selector, all women and genderqueer media activists and DJs of color who spin experimental, house, trap, bass, and global music.
We will be hosting a film screening event at Impact Hub on Nov. 13, which will feature Afrofuturist, speculative, Black sci-fi, and horror films. The screenings will include Prince of Nowhere by Selam Bekele; A Dangerous Cure by Kevin Jarvis, Last Man Standing by Stan West, NOISEGATE by Donovan Vim Crony , Walk With Me by Art Punch Studio, and other shorts. We will be Skyping in to talk with some of the filmmakers after the screenings.

The monthlong celebration will also feature an experimental space for social practices of Afrofuturism through cultural workshops and speculative fiction readings at A*Space on Nov. 15. There will be experimental workshops, mini-lectures, readings, and a musical performance. Activities will include time travel experiments, fiction after the end of history, a guided journey in order to find the oldest, blackest memory in the DNA museum, featuring Metropolarity Speculative Fiction collective, scholar Rone Shavers, Almah the Alchemist, poet and performer MMGZ, Afrofuturist author and healer DjaDJa Medjay, and music group BHTP. The final event for Black Holographic will be held on Nov. 19 at Dahlak Restaurant, in collaboration with community partner, Rockers!, a monthly DIY event in Philly that showcases Black and female-led punk bands from all over the country.
All proceeds from the Black Holographic Memory events will benefit the Futurist Fund, a grassroots-style community grant dedicated to serving the needs of an underserved or marginalized member of the community with an immediate and demonstrated need, and without other available funds or resources to meet that need. This allows the proceeds from the events to cycle directly back into the communities where the events are held. The grant seeks to connect the philosophies of Afrofuturism to principles of liberation and upliftment of disenfranchised communities. The DIY/grassroots principles of the organization do not require corporate backing. We are proud to receive support for the events from women-owned small businesses and community organizations such as Philadelphia Printworks, Lissa Alicia IMM, Metropolarity, Rockers, and FanBros.com.
The AfroFuturist Affair Charity & Costume Ball – and Afrofuturism in general – engages the Black community as a vehicle through which people can push beyond the confines of the mainstream narratives and stereotypes that have marginalized their interests, experiences, and their very existences. In the form of art, critical analysis, music, fashion and literature, Afrofuturists correct the records of our histories and interrogate the present structures and institutions of modern-day society, all while building future worlds where Black people have agency and a significant presence.

For more info and tickets to Black Holographic Memory, please visit www.blackholographicmemory.eventbrite.com
If you can’t attend the ball but still want to support, please donate to our IndieGoGo campaign at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-holographic-memory/x/1024255 !

November 6, 2014November 9, 2014

Are Some White People’s Fear of Discussing Race Holding Back Diversity Progress in Silicon Valley?

Facebook’s global head of diversity, Maxine Williams, is taking a different approach to addressing the discussion of race in Silicon Valley, and, according to her, there’s no room for people to be sensitive about the subject.

It’s been a year since Williams was given the task of improving diversity within Facebook and creating a space that welcomed employees from a variety of different backgrounds.

Needless to say, the task certainly wasn’t going to be an easy one.

While the company still isn’t anywhere near as diverse as it has the potential to be, Williams may have unlocked the secret to really getting things moving forward – stop being so sensitive.

Williams sat down with Forbes and explained that many of the white people in the office were uncomfortable about discussing race.

At one point, she recalled that one white employee asked her if it was OK for them to even use the word “Black.”

“I would literally have conversations with people where they would say to me, ‘Can I say the word Black?’” Williams recalled. “And I was like, ‘Wow, these were the conversations we’re having?’”

Williams said years of sensitivity training and lawyers ready to pounce at the sign of any relatively offensive remark has white people terrified of even bringing up diversity and race in the workplace.

The idea of talking to a Black person in the office becomes a game of social Mine Sweeper where any wrong move can end in absolute disaster.

Williams says that to a certain extent that idea needs to be pushed out of the workplace.

“This needs to be a space where people can ask stupid questions and then be forgiven,” Williams said. “In the typical workplace that has employment lawyers, nobody wants you asking stupid questions because they could be offensive. You won’t want to ask that Black person, ‘Do you wash your hair?’ You just don’t. It raises risk … so we become hesitant to engage.”

Williams has flipped that philosophy on its head at Facebook.

“We’ve flipped that around,” she continued. “I’ve said to people: It’s OK to ask those things, but then I want you to forgive people when they ask stupid questions. What I came to see is the hesitation came because I’m operating in a country that has a heightened sensitivity around race, where, quite frankly, white people are afraid to engage. They’re afraid of stepping in the wrong place.”

According to Williams, the push for diversity in the tech sphere will fall short if people continue to be too sensitive about the subject.

“I think sensitivity was holding us back from being bold on diversity,” Williams said about Facebook. “We were bold on products, right? We would achieve things that you never thought were achievable. But on these issues of identity, there was hesitation and sensitivity.”

Williams explained that many times white people were “well intentioned” because they didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make a remark that could be perceived as racist.

In the end, all that really did was hinder progress.

Williams continues to push employees to be open and honest and ask those “stupid questions.”

That, she says, is the only way to truly get everyone engaged in a much-needed conversation about race.

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

Are You Ready for the Frightening Possibility of Windowless Airplanes?

Source: Center for Process Innovation (CPI) “A look at what the future may hold for air travel as current technological developments mature and find applications in markets such as the aerospace industry.”

October 31, 2014October 31, 2014

Black Pinterest Employee Recalls Silicon Valley’s Apathetic Response to Ferguson

Tech industry's apathetic response to Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson? Who is that?

As one of the few Black employees in Silicon Valley and a part of the 1 percent of African-Americans who work at Pinterest, Justin Edmund was bothered by Silicon Valley’s response to what happened in Ferguson.

Ferguson is the name of the city in Missouri where unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer after the teen allegedly had his hands up to surrender.

As far as many of the people in Silicon Valley were concerned, however, Ferguson might as well have been the name of the happy-go-lucky elderly man who walks the streets of Atlanta handing out inspirational quotes to people as they walk by.

Edmund, who is a designer responsible for the look and feel of certain features on Pinterest, asked himself why nobody in the tech industry seemed bothered about the unrest that plagued Ferguson.

Even more troubling, he wondered why most people didn’t even know about it.

When one of Edmund’s co-workers lamented that the tech world didn’t care about Ferguson, another employee responded by saying, “I don’t even know who that is.”

According to an essay published by Edmund on Medium, there was only one reason why Silicon Valley seemed completely unaware of what happened in Ferguson.

“At most major technology companies, an average 2 percent of their workforce is African Americans – we’re talking tens of people at companies employing thousands of people,” he wrote. “At my own company, it’s even worse at only 1 percent. I can count us all on one hand.”

While Pinterest does have fewer Black employees, the company is also much smaller than tech giants like Facebook and Google.

He also pointed out that Pinterest has shown interest in working on increasing diversity, and several of his colleagues have pushed for such a cause.

Even then, however, he doesn’t feel any more comfortable about being a Black man in the tech industry — nonetheless a Black man in America.

“In today’s America, I could walk to the store right now and be shot dead in my tracks because of a misunderstanding, or perhaps for no reason at all,” he continued in the essay titled Growing Up. “There are people in the world that will never see past the color of my skin. Instead, they will shoot me dead for walking home from the corner store with Skittles and Arizona iced tea.”

The quote was a clear reference to the death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed Black teen in Florida who was fatally shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012.

With so many racial tensions already plaguing the country as a whole, it’s even harder for Black tech employees like Edmund when they don’t see anyone who looks like them in their place of work.

“It’s hard to aspire to be something when you don’t see people in that role who look like you,” Edmund told USA Today.

It’s even harder to aspire to be those things when you don’t even have access to the type of education that would prepare you for that career.

Edmund acknowledged that he was quite privileged and didn’t face the same obstacles that other African-Americans face when it comes to entering the technology field.

“Having grown up in New York, I was fairly privileged, but there are lots and lots of people that, you know, weren’t as lucky as me that are probably extremely smart but didn’t realize that they can download a program and start making code and start building things,” he said.

Edmund also believes there needs to be more efforts to introduce younger students to computer science.

“Inspiring people when they are young and showing them like, ‘Hey, you like Vine? You like Instagram? Cool, you can actually work on those things if you start now and you work on these kinds of problems and you take this kind of path,’” Edmund said. “That kind of awareness will go a long way.”

October 27, 2014

8 Compelling Design Drawings of The Air Umbrella

This is a test of Air Umbrella B in water

In July 2014, they finished the new sample and colored the product to make it better-looking. And this sample is what we show as Air umbrella-B.

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October 27, 2014October 27, 2014

After Seeing This Truly Innovative Umbrella You Will Be Fascinated At What Else The Future Holds

Source: Huffington Post – “The creators of a new Kickstarter campaign claim to have developed an umbrella that pushes air against the rain to protect its owner from getting wet, and they’ve blown way past their $10,000 funding goal. They call it the Air umbrella.” See it from all angles here.

October 24, 2014October 24, 2014

Aisha Tyler Talks Dirty to the President, Explains Why She’s Always Drinking

Archer star Aisha Tyler made some interesting confessions during an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday – admitting that she’s been talking dirty to President Barack Obama and doing a lot more drinking than usual.

The 6-foot comedian certainly has an interesting life, but her latest exploits may be some of the most intriguing ones yet.

During her interview with The Washington Post, she opened up about the first time she made President Barack Obama laugh.

“I did tell President Obama a joke the first time I met him when we kicked off the second surrogate program and, um, I actually can’t repeat it,” she said, hinting that the joke was a dirty one.

When the interviewer asked Tyler if she indeed told the president a dirty joke, she jokingly explained that it wasn’t too dirty for the president’s ears.

“It wasn’t really dirty,” she exclaimed. “It was just kind of inside baseball, a little bit, about television.”

Regardless of how dirty the joke was, it was enough to earn some presidential laughter.

“And I made him laugh, and I have a photo,” she continued. “I put it up on my Facebook for a while. I was very pleased with myself.”

Now that she has gotten comedic praise from the current leader of the nation, Tyler is ready to take on the type of high pressure situation that left comedy veteran Kevin Hart feeling quite intimidated – the White House Correspondent’s dinner.

“Kevin Hart told me at the White House Correspondent’s dinner this year that the whole thing seemed super intense,” The Washington Post’s Helena Andrews told Tyler. “Would you be up for that challenge?”

“Oh my God, in a heartbeat,” Tyler said. “It’s obviously a lot of pressure. But I think figuring out the math, like the right comedic algorithm for that night, would be a really fun problem to unlock.”

She admitted that many comedy stars haven’t been able to figure that algorithm out, but she’s totally up for the challenge.

It’s no surprise that Tyler is so eager to take on the challenge either.

Earlier in the interview, she explained that her greatest fear is to wake up one day without feeling challenged.

“I think two things scare me: not being challenged terrifies me more than being challenged,” Tyler said. “And trying to do everything as exceptionally as I can. I don’t believe in lay-ups. I always want to try and push myself to over deliver.”

For now, Tyler has delivered on the promise to challenge herself.

She’s currently juggling three TV shows – The Talk, Archer and BoJack Horseman.

In addition to dominating the comedy space on TV, she’s also still managing standup gigs, gamer conferences and other high-profile appearances like the upcoming USO gala on Friday.

Tyler will be hosting the gala, which is dedicated to honoring, celebrating and thanking the men and women in uniform who have dedicated their lives to protecting the freedoms of Americans.

For some fans, however, Tyler’s social media has them wondering if the star is battling with alcohol problems.

As it turns out, however, Tyler hasn’t been drinking for fun – she’s drinking for work.

“I’m actually starting a spirits company next summer, so now whenever I have a cocktail it’s research,” she said.

Tyler went on to say friends and fans have commented on all the pictures of her drinking and asked if she’s OK.

“Just know, like I order a drink, and I drink like this much of it [she indicates a thimble], and then I stop,” she told The Washington Post. “There’s nothing cute about a sloppy drunk.”

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

11 Black Child Entrepreneurs You Should Know

Umar Brimah

At the age of 12, Umar Brimah, now 18, started his very own anime store called Yumazu (his name in Japanese). He opened the new shop in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Turning his hobby into a business, his mother put up $ 10,000 as an investment opening. Considering the Internet is one of the only places you can find anime, some products can end up costing twice the price, plus shipping charges, as reported by the Black Money Watch website.

Chental-Song Bembry

Chental-Song Bembry is the 17-year-old writer and illustrator behind The Honey Bunch Kids. Her mother helps her daughter run the literary business out of their home in Monmouth Junction, N.J. Ultimately, the duo hope to “launch a dominant brand that would include the images of [Bembry’s] characters being sold on personal items, from bed sheets to book bags,” according to the Black Enterprise website.

She was named youth ambassador for two literacy organizations, LiteracyNation and Mission EduCare. In 2011, she was brought into the funding-and-mentoring program of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, the nonprofit foundation that offers $10,000 in startup grants and eight weeks of mentoring to talented young businesspeople nationwide.

Leanna Archer

Leanna Archer was just 9 years old she began using her Haitian great-grandmother’s recipe to sell homemade hair care products, as reported by NPR.org. Today, at age 18, she’s the CEO of a six-figure business. She handles more than 350 online orders a week and generates more than $100,000 in revenue every year. She has also founded the Leanna Archer Education Foundation for underprivileged children in Haiti.

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