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The Victoria and Albert Museum Explores the History of Black British Culture

For the last seven years, the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London has been working with Black Cultural Archives to compile a collection of photographs that document the lives of Black people in Britain. Now with a collection of 118 works by 17 artists, the museum is currently displaying the collection in an exhibition titled “Staying Power” until May 24 at V&A Museum. (A concurrent exhibit runs until June 30 at the Black Cultural Archives in London.) It aims to “raise awareness of the contribution of black Britons to British culture and society, as well as to the art of photography.”

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Al Vandenberg, “High Street Kensington,” 1976, from the series “On a Good Day.” Museum no. E.432-2010. © The Estate of Al Vandenberg / Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

 

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Armet Francis, “Self-Portrait in Mirror,” London, 1964, gelatin silver print © Armet Francis / Victoria and Albert, London

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Normski, “African Homeboy – Brixton,” London, 1987, printed 2011, c-type print. © Normski / Victoria and Albert, London

This post is courtesy of AFROPUNK. To read more from Alexander Aplerk visit afropunk.com

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President Obama Announces Plan to Boost Middle-Class Economics Through TechHire Initiative

Middle-class economics have always been promoted as a key focus for President Barack Obama and his administration. With that focus in mind, the president is honing in on the tech sector in hopes to drive major economic success for middle-class Americans and prepare them for the high-tech jobs that are not only readily available, but also pay extremely well.

In the midst of the country’s economic resurgence, it always seemed like the middle class, particularly the Black community, was being left behind.

The president hopes to change that by getting more middle-class Americans into well-paying high-tech careers through his new TechHire initiative.

The president will announce more details about the program during a National League of Cities conference in Washington on Monday.

A statement about the program published on the White House website assured citizens that at least $100 million in grants would be made available to help the TechHire initiative’s cause.

“TechHire is a bold multi-sector effort and call to action to empower Americans with the skills they need, through universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like ‘coding bootcamps,’ and high-quality online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job, often in just a few months,” the White House’s statement explains. “Employers across the United States are in critical need of talent with these skills. Many of these programs do not require a four-year degree.”

In addition to boosting efforts to train more middle-class Americans in tech-related skills, the initiative will also be dedicated to getting Americans connected to the right tech jobs for them.

So far, more than 20 cities have stepped forward to participate in the initiative by helping to provide a network of resources and employment opportunities for middle-class Americans in the tech space.

The list of cities includes New York City, Salt Lake City, Portland, San Francisco, Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville and more.

The statement explained that the initiative will be reliant on “local leadership” that can “connect people to jobs with hiring on ramp programs.”

With more than 500,000 job openings in the tech field, according to the White House statement, it could be a great opportunity to give middle-class economics a much-needed boost.

The unconventional training programs are also a major benefit to Black communities where people are often not wealthy enough to obtain quality training in the tech field otherwise.

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11 Black Entrepreneurs Who Made It to Forbes’ 2015 Billionaires List

 

michael-jordanMichael Jordan

Net Worth: $1 billion

Jordan’s wealth comes from being the majority shareholder of the Charlotte Bobcats and from deals with Gatorade, Hanes and Upper Deck. Most of his wealth comes from his deal with the Jordan Brand with Nike.

femi-otedola

Femi Otedola

Net Worth: $1 billion

Otedola is a native of Nigeria and the controlling shareholder of Forte Oil, one of West Africa’s largest oil companies. The Forte Oil company owns gas stations and fuel storage depots. It also manufactures and sells its own line of engine oils.

Abdulsamad-Rabiu

Abdulsamad Rabiu

Net Worth: $1 billion

Rabiu is also a native Nigerian, and he is the founder of the BUA Group. This company focuses on sugar refining, cement production, real estate, steel, port concessions, manufacturing, oil, gas and shipping.

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New Graphic Novel ‘The Legend of Wale Williams’ Set to Be Released Later This Year

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‘EXO’ (Wale Williams)

Check out “EXO: The Legend of Wale Williams,” a graphic novel set to be released later this year – created by Nigerian-born Roye Okupe (owner/creative director at YouNeek Studios). Set in the year 2025, in the fictional Nigerian city of Lagoon (modeled after the Nigerian city Lagos), a young man named Wale Williams inherits a suit with superpowers after his father goes missing and uses the suit to battle against the terror attacks of a sociopathic extremist. Regarding the project, Okupe says: “From the first day I laid my eyes on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons in the ’80s, I’ve been hooked on superheroes. Since then, I’ve watched, played and read every single superhero-related title I could lay my hands on: movies, comics, manga, anime, graphic novels, animated movies/series, video games, etc. And then in 2008, after noticing there wasn’t a lot of diversity in the genre, I decided to tell a story about a hero from Nigeria. Hopefully, ‘EXO’ fulfills my goal of adding something unique to the industry.” Check out some images below, plus a trailer (based on early animation tests) for the upcoming graphic novel.

This post is courtesy of AFROPUNK. To read more from Alexander Aplerku visit afropunk.com

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Virtual Reality Still Just Around the Corner as Developers Try to Eliminate the Final Kinks

For years now virtual reality headsets for gaming and movie-watching have been just around the corner.

For years now….

Tech lovers have long been strapping clunky early models of virtual reality sets to their faces and forgetting in the midst of their excitement that their neck is screaming in agony and that a red rectangular mark was stuck on their face by the time they removed the headset.

This all goes without mentioning the fact that for many consumers, the headset was ripped off in a mad dash to the bathroom to vomit after motion sickness settled in.

Game enthusiasts never needed a special headset to spot the empty promises that were constantly fueling their hopes that virtual reality would finally actually come around the world’s largest corner.

The dominating presence of virtual reality developments at the Game Developers Conferences in San Francisco, however, sparked a new wave of hope that the wait for virtual reality sets would soon be over.

This was mainly because it seemed like every major tech giant in the virtual reality race had stunning new developments to demo for the anxious public.

Oculus, Sony, and Valve all had virtual reality sets on display at the conferences, and the industry’s power players were happy to discuss the new technologies on the way.

“There is a legitimate opportunity,” said Oculus CTO John Carmack. “Make something great, and there will be opportunities there to move a number of units, to be the breakout ‘thing.’ To look back and say, ‘Well, clearly that was the obvious thing to do’ when it wasn’t the obvious thing to do.”

With a new wave of buzz around virtual reality, it’s no surprise that developers are already working on some of the first games that consumers will get to play with the headsets.

Serious Parody CEO Daniel Hinkle has been eagerly working on games for the Oculus Rift, but other developers were hesitant to hop on board.

While the tech giants did unveil impressive advances at the conferences, there are still serious concerns about the actual functionality surrounding the devices.

For one, the devices are still making some people sick.

In the midst of assuring tech lovers that virtual reality was on the way and praising the daring pioneers of the technology, Carmack also pointed to the current downfalls and obstacles that are plaguing the devices.

Carmack laid out his “nightmare scenario.”

“People like the demo, they take it home, and they start throwing up,” Carmack said.

It’s a very real reality.

For those who managed to get their hands on Ocular prototypes in the past, the motion sickness struggle was proven to be very real.

“The fear is if a really bad V.R. product comes out, it could send the industry back to the ’90s,” he said.

Carmack wasn’t the only one to discuss this fear.

Gabe Newell, the president and co-founder of Valve, described the VR demonstrations as “the world’s best motion sickness inducers,” the NY Times reported.

In addition to motion sickness, some users are still unhappy with the size and weight of many VR headsets, which ultimately prohibits them from being focused on the exciting digital realm before them for too long.

This comes along with serious concerns about the price point.

Khaled Helioui, CEO of European game studio Bigpoint, was unhappy with the fact that the headsets will cost $200 or more.

Samsung’s Gear VR is currently priced at $200.

Other tech giants haven’t announced their prices, but it isn’t likely that the $200 price tag will get slashed by competitors.

“The message that sends is, ‘Hey, you need to be wealthy to play our games,’ and I have a big problem with that,” Helioui told Mashable.

For that reason, consumers shouldn’t expect to see any Bigpoint games coming out for the VR sets just yet.

Helioui hinted that he won’t allow it until the price points come down.

Consumers, on the other hand, don’t see the big deal.

“I wouldn’t mind spending up to $300 for a VR headset,” one reader commented.

The Mashable reader also suggested he wouldn’t be willing to go much higher than that but as the tech world has already shown in the past —if the device catches on, people will be willing to dish out an extra hundred bucks or so to make sure they don’t miss the initial wave of a gaming revolution.

 

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Innovative or Insensitive? Video Game Simulating US Slave Experience Leaves Educators Divided

controversial game simulates slavery

Educators are in the midst of a debate over a digital simulation game that attempts to recreate a life of slavery for students. While supporters of the simulation insist it is an innovative way to educate students about slavery, critics say the simulation is an insensitive and misleading portrayal of slavery that will not actually help advance conversations about race and improve students’ understanding of America’s dark history.

Lately, more innovative and technology-driven tech tools have been welcomed into classrooms in order to make learning more interactive for students.

This means it is far from unusual to see students diving into video games and digital simulations that have historical contexts or serve a variety of different educational purposes.

What is more unusual, however, is to realize that students are playing a simulation that forces them to take on the role of a 14-year-old enslaved Black girl by the name of Lucy King.

While it seems like an unusual technical aid for the classroom, the Mission US: Flight to Freedom game is already an award-winning, publicly funded educational tool.

Middle school students log on to the game and are given a series of challenges and “missions” that would ultimately help guide them on their journey as they attempt to escape from a Kentucky plantation.

Some argue that the free, Web-based game is a great way to get kids engaged in learning about slavery, while others believe the game is a serious misstep.

One K-12 instructional technology specialist, Rafranz Davis, is now leading a social media campaign to get the game pulled from schools.

Davis argues that it is impossible to get students to really understand the atrocities of slavery through a video game and, even if it was, she isn’t sure that that would be the type of experience children need to learn about through realistic simulations.

“I don’t know that you can really channel the rape, murder, and mutilation of slavery into a game,” Davis said, according to Education Week. “I’m not against gaming. I’m against the way this was done.”

So far, close to 1 million students have already been registered to play the game, according to WNET, the New York City public-television station that produces and distributes the online game.

Common Sense Media’s own review of the game warned educators and parents that the game was a “realistic depiction” of slavery and forced children to “make difficult decisions” that could be very “intense” for the child.

“Parents need to know that Mission US: Flight to Freedom is an age-appropriate, but realistic depiction of life for an African American teenage girl living in the pre-Civil War period,” the review read. “Kids will experience what it’s like to be ordered around by a master, leave family behind to run for freedom, and have to make difficult decisions. Some children might find the game experience to be intense.”

The review added that there is “emotional trauma” throughout the game’s story.

The review has since been removed in the midst of the current debate and backlash online.

That type of review, however, is exactly why Davis believes the game isn’t right for an educational setting and shouldn’t be in the hands of young people.

“I felt the pit of my stomach drop,” Davis said as she recalled reading about the game for the first time. “The idea of putting children in that place, thinking of my children. … I just said: ‘This is where I draw the line. This is not OK.’ ”

Other educators actually believe the game is headed in the right direction.

Director of the Africana studies department at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, James Braxton Peterson, said he supports the idea of using new technology to education children about slavery.

“We’re already teaching slavery in a way that’s inaccurate, insensitive, and ahistorical,” he told Education Week. “I’m actually in favor of a more sophisticated, enhanced version of this game.”

Educators like Peterson believe that the emotional journey for children could be a good thing and force them to truly understand what it was like for Black people to be enslaved and, in some cases, leave their families behind in order to obtain freedom.

WNET also pointed out that the content of the game was developed by a team of historians from the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

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Researchers Could Revolutionize Infrastructure Maintenance by Getting Walls to Talk

Proper maintenance of infrastructure like busy bridges or towering office buildings is key for any community and especially important for major metro areas.

Unfortunately, keeping up with such infrastructure is a daunting task that could allow many structural issues that need to be addressed to fall through the cracks.

This could ultimately lead to expensive repairs or catastrophic foundation failures that could have been prevented had the integrity of key infrastructure been maintained properly.

There is no arguing that it would all be much easier if walls could talk.

That’s exactly what the team of researchers behind the GENESI project is trying to accomplish.

Walls still wouldn’t be able to share the latest gossip or give you a conversational companion, but they would be able to give accurate reports about their status.

GENESI, which stands for Green Sensor Networks for Structural Monitoring, is a project funded by the European Union that aims to put these new sensors on various structures in order to keep better track of a city’s infrastructure.

“Vibrating strain gauges, displacement meters, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, [and] soil moisture sensors” would be some of the devices used to give buildings, bridges and tunnels a voice.

GENESI has already rolled out two pilot projects to test just how functional the new sensors would be.

So far, the sensors are giving impressive results, but the maintenance has shifted from the buildings to the sensors themselves.

The devices require batteries that still have to be replaced more often than researchers would like.

Popular Science pointed out that even the most energy-efficient sensors could still pose a serious problem when it comes time to monitor and replace the batteries.

While some sensors feature small wind turbines that help garner energy for the device, others rely on manual labor.

“For all other sensors, whether tucked away in tunnel walls or nestled in dark unlit crevices under bridges, replacing batteries isn’t always the easiest task for humans,” Popular Science contributor Kelsey D. Atherton explained. “So that might be a future job for drones.”

While sensor upkeep could be a bit of an annoyance, it’s still a far better option than playing guessing games with major infrastructure.

For that reason, researchers are hoping to perfect the technology and see the sensors popping up in cities all across the globe.