18 Black Child Prodigies Mainstream Media Doesn’t Talk About

 

Untitled16

Andrew Koonce

Andrew Koonce, 15,  is a talented African-American violinist from Atlanta. His list of awards and titles are impressive. As an eighth grader, he ranked first place at the Heritage Music Festival in Florida, winning the Maestro Award for best solo.

Untitled17

Rochelle Ballantyne

At 17, Rochelle Ballantyne is one of the top chess players in the world. This Brooklyn, N.Y., native  is a high school senior now, but her name is still at the top of Intermediate School 318’s list of best players. She is on the verge of becoming the first black American female to earn the title of chess master.

Untitled18

Stephen R. Stafford II

While most of his peers slog through seventh grade, Stephen Stafford, 13, earns credits toward his pre-med, computer science and mathematics degrees at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The wide-smiling, fast-talking, classical piano-playing Lithonia, Ga., resident has been labeled a “prodigy” (a term he doesn’t really like).

Code for Progress Fellowship Brings Politically Minded Organizers Into Tech Industry

The Code for Progress fellowship graduated its first-ever class of newly trained coders last week, introducing a new wave of politically minded entrepreneurs to the technology industry.

The graduation ceremony for the new class of coders looked more like a rally for slain teenager Michael Brown from the outside looking in.

According to GoodBlackNews.org, the ceremony kicked off with a freedom chant in honor of the slain 18-year-old from Ferguson, Missouri. who was fatally shot multiple times Aug. 9 by police officer Darren Wilson.

“What side are you on my people,” the chant asked. “What side are you on?”

The nation’s reaction to the shooting of Brown made it clear that when technology and political activism come together, a powerful movement can be created in an instant.

What began as hashtags on Twitter and Instagram spurred into nationwide marches, rallies and protests pushing for justice for Brown and all the other Black men who have been killed by law enforcement.

The Code for Progress fellowship has always acknowledged this powerful relationship and has been busy training classes of politically minded individuals to provide them with skills that will allow them to exceed in the tech industry.

The fellowship takes things far beyond the world of social media, however.

The new graduates spent four months learning from instructor Aliya Rahman.

Rahman taught the class a handful of different coding languages they will need to exceed in the tech industry.

While the fellowship focuses on bringing politically minded individuals into the tech space, it also caters to minorities and aims to help solve the diversity issue that currently exists in the technology field.

Diversity statistics revealed by companies such as Google and Facebook revealed that the vast majority of their employees are White males.

For both companies, about 60 percent of their employees were male with less than 5 percent of all employees being African-American.

According to Rahman, the fellowship can help improve those numbers by giving minorities access to the education they need.

“Folks who are in communities of color have a higher probability of going to a school that doesn’t teach computer science,” she said. “Seven kids took the advanced placement computer science exam in Washington, D.C., [last year] compared to hundreds in Maryland and Virginia.”

Rahman also pointed out that many women and minorities are intimidated by the college-level computer science course because they are “unwelcoming” and tend to have “unsupportive” faculty.

Lastly, the cost of the classes makes them largely inaccessible to many minorities, she added.

While Rahman believes the fellowship has the ability to train people of color and women to kick start a career in the tech industry, she believes cultural issues in America could still pose a serious problem.

She explained that when Google responded to backlash about its diversity statistics, the company immediately suggested free classes for women and people of color.

According to Rahman, however, many minorities and women are already qualified for the job but are passed up for leadership positions.

“I think affinity groups in organizations play an incredible role in creating community, but in terms of pipelining [people of color] into major positions of leadership – who holds the power?” Rahman said.

Despite the cultural obstacles, the fellowship will continue to push forward with its mission.

The Code for Progress has already made plans to graduate two more classes of fellows next year.

 

Today in History: Otis Boykin, 20th Century Inventor of 21st Century Tech

Inventor Otis Boykin was born Aug. 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas and died March 13, 1982. His most notable invention was an improved electrical resistor used in computers, radios, and various electronic devices.

On June 16, 1959, Boykin received a patent for a wire precision resistor. A resistor slows down the electrical current to keep the device functioning and to prevent too much electricity from passing through it. This particular resistor would be used in radios and televisions.

In 1964, Boykin moved to Paris. While there, he created electrical resistance components used in computers and resistors in guided missile systems. He also invented the chemical air filter and a burglarproof cash register.

He is also know for inventing a control unit for the pacemaker. The unit created electrical impulses to stimulate the heart and manage a steady heartbeat.

Overall, Boykin earned 11 patents and invented 28 different electronic devices.

20 Black Inventions Over The Last 100 Years You May Not Know

Untitled6

Lewis Latimer (1848 – 1928)

What He Invented: The Carbon Filament For The Light Bulb.

Why It’s Important: Latimer is one of the greatest inventors of all time. Thomas Edison may have invented the electric lightbulb, but Latimer helped make it a common feature in American households. In 1881 he received a patent for inventing a method of producing carbon filaments, which made the bulbs longer-lasting, more efficient and cheaper.

In 1876, he worked with Alexander Graham Bell to draft the drawings required for the patent of Bell’s telephone.

Untitled7

Elijah McCoy (1844-1929)

What He Invented: A Railroad Lubrication Machine.

Why It’s Important: McCoy, who was from Canada, invented a lubrication device to make railroad operation more efficient. After studying the inefficiencies inherent in the existing system of oiling axles, McCoy invented a lubricating cup that distributed oil evenly over the engine’s moving parts. He obtained a patent for this invention in 1872, which allowed trains to run continuously for long periods of time without pausing for maintenance.

Untitled8

Henry Brown

What He Invented: The Modern-Day Fireproof Safe

Why It Is Important: When Henry Brown patented a “receptacle for storing and preserving papers on November 2, 1886”  This was a fire and accident safe container made of forged metal, which could be sealed with a lock and key. Anyone who has ever had important documents stored in a safe and saved in a fire can thank Brown.

Untitled9

Granville T. Woods (1856-1910)

What He Invented: The Multiplex Telegraph.

Why It’s Important: The Multiplex Telegraph was a device that sent messages between train stations and moving trains. His work assured a safer and better public transportation system for the cities of the United States.

Ethel Cofie, CEO of Edel Consultancy, Talks Supporting Women Through Technology

Ethel Cofie, a self-proclaimed techie and CEO of Edel Consultancy, has been using her love for technology to provide solutions for socio-economic issues in Africa. She is currently finishing up her studies at Yale University through the Washington Fellowship, a program for young African leaders to build leadership and management skills. When she is not spending her time supporting startups, building apps to support women’s health or improving her skills at Ivy League universities, she can be found working on narrowing the gap between men and women in the tech industry.

Q: What are three terms that describe your professional journey?

Persistence

I worked for one of my professors who taught computer science, when I was a university student back in Ghana. I was 21, and he was letting me weigh in on these huge discussions that were way above my head. This exposure helped to inform my career journey.

This encouraged me to be a businesswoman. I started a business in 2010. I felt I was pretty passionate and intelligent. In terms of what happened, I got really interesting jobs working across Africa. I failed a lot along the way but learned many lessons, which made it easier to get back up and try again. So persistence was key in my development as a professional and a businesswoman.

Awareness

One of my last corporate jobs before I started my tech company was being head of commercial solutions for Vodafone Ghana.

As women, we work hard, and because of it, we should be acknowledged for it. However, that acknowledgement doesn’t always come. I learned how to be aware of emotional intelligence, and I learned that working hard is not enough. It is important for professionals, women especially, to be able to walk into a room and be aware of who is in the room, the motivations of the individuals in that room, recognize the synergy and how to work with them. Once I realized that, it made things easier for me.

Hard work

It is pretty self-explanatory. I work as hard as possible to accomplish my goals.

Q: Explain the function of your position as a technical product/solutions manager. How do you assist your clients?

From a technical perspective, I describe myself as technical product/solutions manager. I am sort of the person that is in the middle of technical expertise and customer design. I’m a techie that is focused on customer service products.

When working with clients, I first like to start by testing the customer journey out before I build anything. I like to sit with a client and understand what their business is and who their customers are and what is the company’s path. Once that happens, I can begin to build tools that work.

So there’s an anthropological component to how I approach my work. That makes the technology part successful beyond just a working tech product.

Q: What does a typical workday look like for you?

OK, so apart from running Edel Consultancy, I also run a women-in-tech group in Ghana, and I’m working with women-in-tech groups across Africa to create an alliance.

I am also working to create an accelerator for StartUp Africa. So right now, my days are a little everywhere. Literally, I have a plan for what I’m achieving for each quarter. So, essentially, no day at the moment looks the same. I could be doing a client brief, business development, working with multinational companies that are coming into Africa and helping them with technical solutions.

Q: What is one project that you worked on that you were really proud of?

I worked with the Gates Foundation to build a mobile app that enabled pregnant women to know when to go to the hospital and what medicine they should be taking. I also built one for nurses to track their patients. That did really well. It was piloted in Ghana and then deployed to other countries like Tanzania and Uganda and other countries across Africa. This was work that I was really excited about doing, and I want to continue to do that kind of work.

Q: How did you get involved with the Washington Fellowship?

It’s actually funny how I got involved. I initially did not want to apply for it. I’ve been so busy, and I have all these other projects that I didn’t want to add this to my plate. My husband was the one who told me about it, and although I was reluctant, he wouldn’t let it go. So to avoid a big argument, I just applied, and I actually was called to be interviewed. From there, I was accepted.

The program is a wonderful initiative that [President Barack] Obama created called the Young African Leaders Initiative where 500 young leaders are chosen to receive leadership and management training in the United States.

I spent six weeks at Yale receiving the training. I had the opportunity to meet with President Obama and the first lady. I also met with United Nations ambassadors and government leaders.

The experience has been great. They encourage you to work on a project before the end of the fellowship, so I have been working on this accelerator program StartUp Africa.

The goal is to support startups that are in their nascent stages and help them to get access to networks, funding and the exposure to triple their chances of surviving. Seventy to 80 percent of startups fold within the first year. I realized that I wanted to help startups but doing that in a way that is structured. I sought after startups that wanted to launch in multiple markets because it seems more profitable. The accelerator  program is a three-month program. A lot of the work is virtual. And we are recruiting other people to help, such as mentors.

I have always had the idea in my head for ages, but I just couldn’t do anything about it just because of timing. Being a part of the fellowship allowed me to access additional resources and support to make it easier to execute the idea.

Q: You are very involved in a lot of different projects. Tell me more about the work you are doing with BarCamp Africa UK.

BarCamp Africa UK started in 2009. I did my master’s in the UK, and I realized there are a lot of Africans in the diaspora in the UK, and I wanted to find a way to bring those skills that these people have and bring them to Africa. I reached on social media. I shared my ideas and left it there. Then people started to reach out saying they are ready to help. And so that’s how we ended up forming this with five or six people.

Essentially, this initiative was about connecting Africans in the UK and having them network. We want to work with organizations doing things on the ground who need our help. So for instance, the Gates Foundation or social enterprises who could use our help, which could be developing an app or putting together a marketing strategy or business plan. We would take all these diverse skill sets into one room and put them to work for four or five hours. The question we posed was: What could you do to help the continent in four to five hours? This is much harder to do than just a conference. So right now, we are partnering with an organization this year that is doing something similar to our initiative.

BarCamp Africa UK was sort of my first move to doing all the things I do now. It gave me the confidence and provided me with a strong network.

Q: What are some of the challenges you experience in the work that you do?

So I run a women’s tech group in Ghana because I strongly believe that women are underrepresented in the industry. We need to help support women in the field. My efforts have been deemed feminist. Or sometimes, I will get asked questions like: How are you married doing all of this?

It is important for me to help women in the tech field, but it is a challenge convincing people that my passion to support women does not mean I’m against everyone else.

The other challenge is travel. I’m married, and my husband and I travel a lot, so the separation can be hard. I’m grateful though because despite the challenge of travel, he is very supportive. He double-checks all my work. He’s a great teammate.

Q: What are your overall thoughts about women, specifically women of color, in the STEM fields?

Women in technology are extremely underrepresented. Having diversity in your organization helps with diversity of thought and that helps with the bottom line. If your aim is to profit, it just makes sense to have diversity. You will not grow as a business without that.

Women in the tech field has improved, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. I’ve been thinking about how I could partner with different organizations to narrow the gap. I’ve said this a couple of times. It’s easy for me to be a part of the boys’ club because I’m in tech and a bit boisterous. But a lot of women think tech is a bit of a boys’ club, and it’s hard to penetrate that. Well, I’m trying to create a girls’ club to provide women with the resources and networks.

We need more of these groups to help support women so they can do this on their own.

 

 

Black Entrepreneurs Ready to Change the Face of the Tech Industry

An overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs in the tech industry are white and male. But through better education, assistance from venture capitalists and support from major companies, the industry could be on the brink of a major shakeup.

Companies like Facebook and Google recently disclosed statistics about the demographics of their workforces, which confirmed what many had already believed – the faces behind these companies are mostly white males.

Out of Facebook’s nearly 7,000 employees, 69 percent are males. Out of all of its employees in the U.S., nearly 60 percent are white.

Google’s report, which was released in January, revealed similar numbers.

Roughly 70 percent of Google’s employees are men, and more than 60 percent are white. About 2 percent are Black.

So what is causing such a drastic race and gender gap in employees at major tech companies?

According to the panelists at Technoir, it has a lot to do with education and support.

Technoir, which was held in August, is the first in a series of discussions and networking events created to examine the challenges and opportunities that Black entrepreneurs often face.

One of the main challenges the event’s panelists discussed was the importance of quality education.

Aaron Saunders, chief executive of Clearly Innovative, pointed out that youths need to be skilled in mathematics and science in order to succeed in the tech industry.

Not only that, but they need to be in an environment where they can learn about all the different careers that the tech industry has to offer.

Saunders has already co-founded a summer camp and academic program at Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science in Washington, D.C., called Startup Middle School.

The program gives its young members more experience using science, math and technology to solve a variety of different problems.

According to Saunders, it was not only troubling that the students were not given many opportunities to build their math and science skills outside of his camp, but also that they had never even met anyone who worked in the technology industry.

“These are the things that make a difference,” he said. “These are the things that move the needle.”

Meanwhile, other panelists stressed that the right education will not be enough to create a more diverse space in the tech industry.

Minority tech entrepreneurs need the same support and financial backing that white males are often awarded.

“A lot of these firms, their diversity is in my opinion shameful,” said Justin Maddox, the chief executive of CrowdTrust. “It’s extremely lame in 2014 for you not to be able to reach outside your demographic and grab somebody of another gender or another race.”

Talib I. Karim, executive director of the nonprofit STEM4US!, agreed with Maddox.

“If you have a great idea and somebody believes the only people who have great ideas are white males, then how are we ever going to create an economy that outperforms those economies like China,” Karim questioned. “We have an advantage in our diversity.”

The good news for many minority entrepreneurs is that the growth of crowd funding provides some sort of financial backing when venture capitalists and other potential investors turn the other cheek.

Sites like KickStarter and Indiegogo have made it easy for emerging entrepreneurs to get the financial aid they need to launch a startup or continue the growth of their business.

With those tools in mind, Toya Powell believes it is vital that minority entrepreneurs support each other.

“Everyone in this room has the capacity to be an angel,” said Powell, the vice president of operations at the National Black Chamber of Commerce. “You could, in your own sphere of influence, invest in each other.”

 

 

Using Afrofuturism to Power New Modes of Tech – Interview with Blogger Sherese Francis (Futuristically Ancient)

“Because the mask is your face, the face is a mask, so I’m thinking of the face as a mask because of the way I see faces is coming from an African vision of the mask which is the thing that we carry around with us, it is our presentation, it’s our front, it’s our face.”

– Faith Ringgold

What do we think of when we think of science and technology? Living currently in our high-tech, digital world with computers, the Internet, techies and laboratory scientists, many of us separate ourselves from science and technology as if they are not part of our everyday lives. Do we think of a mask as technology? I want to explore that idea.

A few weeks ago, I began reading Tempestt Hazel’s Black to the Future Series in which she interviews artists and intellectuals about Afrofuturism and Afrosurrealism. While reading some of the answers of the interviewees, I recognized a subtle framing of and at times distancing from Afrofuturism based on electric and digital technology of the 20th and 21st century. Phrases like “I’m not a techie,” in a sense undermines how much science and technology are embedded in the creation of our lives and that they have existed longer and have a wider reach than we normally think. As the aesthetic movement of Afrofuturism gains recognition, we need to break down the boundaries of what we describe as science and technology.

Last year, I attended The Festival of the New Black Imagination where futurist Nat Irvin II gave a lecture on the importance of futuristic thinking that included a history of science and technological advancement, beginning with the Agricultural Revolution, which could also be called biotechnology. He claimed that only now we have reached an age of hybridity where man and machine are coming together.

Thinking back on that claim, I have come to disagree. We have always been hybrid creatures or cyborgs as Amber Case discussed in her lecture about prosthetic culture and cyborg anthropology. To say that only now we are, is to think in the same linear Western sense in which racists tell societies they consider primitive that Western culture brought them science and technology.

Science and technology are much more than machines and computers. If you look at the definition of both terms, their meanings are more inclusive. Science is the knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws. Technology is the science of the application of knowledge to practical purposes or applied science.

Machines and computers are tools and instruments, which are all applied knowledge for specific purposes. Referring back to the theme of my post, how does that relate to the mask? Since technology is an application of knowledge, or, in other words, an extension and expression of one’s abilities and thoughts, then so is a mask, in both its creation and use.

Robert Pruitt’s Towards a Walk in the Sun

Many of us may think of a mask as only art or an object used in a religious ritual, but it is a tool or instrument applying some sort of knowledge as well. Like the mask, technology works as a medium; they let us do things we would not be able to do without them. A mask is an alternate face similar to prosthetic limbs, electronic pacemakers and even musical instruments that extend our bodies’ abilities. Astronauts and scuba divers basically wear masks and costumes that allow them to go where a normal human being would not be able to go. The mask shows us that we are cyborgs (cybernetic organisms). We are part natural and part created; we have been since as early as the agricultural revolution. This is the reason I disagreed with Irvin; any tool we have used has been an extension of us.

Rethinking of science and technology can also help us to rethink our views of our bodies and on religion. Think of it in terms of the Lucius Brockway’s line from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: “We the machines inside the machine.”

Often art, the body and religion are positioned as the opposite or outside of the realm of these things, but I agree with ethnomusicologist Kyra Gaunt when she said in Games Black Girls Play that musical instruments and bodies are also forms of technology. Our physical bodies are manifestations of thoughts, knowledge, memories, experiences. Since we take in information from the world, the mind analyzes it and the body evolves accordingly. The development of our opposable thumbs, which allows us to create all the technology we have, can be considered a technological development.

In terms of religion or cosmology, for those who believe in a god or some sort of divine consciousness, creator or designer, and for those who believe we are spirits having a physical experience, our body then can be considered a tool or medium of a spirit of God. And if God is a creator or designer much like we are, then it is not perfect, but constantly experimenting and re-inventing itself based on its experience. This can connect creationism and evolution together. Also, depicting ourselves as both spirit and body represents another form of the hybridity that I discussed earlier.

As we look at our cultures through the lens of Afrofuturism and encourage younger generations to learn more about science and technology, I also encourage that expand on these to explore our cultures’ pasts, presents and futures. Re-evaluating our scope of and how we relate to science and technology could benefit us in the long run. They are more than the current advancements that developed in the industrial and post-industrial eras and that are exclusive to dominant cultures, upper classes and capitalists. All types of science and technology, whether it be in the form of a mask or a computer, allow us to fantasize about, explore and experience possibilities as well as understand ourselves and the world around us better.

Interview

1. How do you define technology? How do you define Afrofuturism? How do you participate in Afrofuturism?

My definition of technology came from reading Kyra Gaunt’s book, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes From Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop while writing my undergraduate thesis on The Percussive Approach in Hip-Hop. In her third chapter, Mary Mack Dressed in Black: The Earliest Formation of a Popular Music, one of the subsections was the “body as technology.” Here she describes her view on technology in terms of black musical production:

“In this way and others, the body is a technology of black musical communication and identity. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines “technology” as “the practical application of knowledge, a manner of accomplishing a task (i.e., identifying with blackness, the African Diaspora, Africans), using a skill or craft, a method or process” (1999). Extra-somatic instruments … are acceptable media of artistic technology. The social body as a tool or method of artistic composition and performance, however, continues to be overlooked in the study of music … ” (59).

She continues to say how extra-somatic musical technology are extensions of what our bodies and voices naturally can do. Reading her words broadened my scope of what technology is and part of the inspiration for my post, The Mask as Technology. Technology is the application of knowledge and wisdom through the invention of extensions that compensate for our needs and desires and that reach across limitations and boundaries.

For centuries, Black bodies have been exploited as forms of slave/capitalist technologies, designed for the desires of white hetero-patriarchal cultures. Although I don’t tend to give Afrofuturism a specific definition as it means different things to different people, I view it as a tool, a kind of technology as well. I use it to reclaim our whole bodies (physical, mental, spiritual) through the exploration of various possible futures and presents in addition to revising or revealing (the meaning of apocalypse) various pasts of the African Diaspora using tropes of current speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, myths, legends, folktales, fairy tales, historical revision), magic(k), spiritual systems, science and technology.

I participate in Afrofuturism through my writing and studies, including my blog, Futuristically Ancient. I see myself as a kind of archivist, linking the past and future through recording the arts and cultures of the Diaspora that the mainstream may ignore or degrade to show Blackness and the Diaspora outside the box of expectations in which they are placed. What we have been told about who Black people and African descendants by others are filled with untruths used to control us and the imaginations of ourselves and what we can be and do; I want to show the various possibilities of Blackness and Black people that has already existed, still exist and will exist if we fight for it.

2. One criticism about Afrofuturism is that it does not advance technology or dream up novel technologies that can have practical, real-life applications. What are your thoughts on this critique? How does Afrofuturism/Black futurism inform your research and real-life work?

I wonder how Afrofuturism is perceived or used in their questioning. Are they using it as a singular movement or word in which they see only a small segment or its mainstream advocates, and then ask why they do not see a specific aspect there that they would like to see? Or do they see it like I do, as a tool to explore various areas and ideas of cultures of Black people and African descendants in and out of the mainstream that could result in those inventions. I know that there are people out there who are imagining or inventing new technologies because we are humans and humans are constantly engineering new technologies. We are inventive people who survive in times of necessity and within oppressive societies, in music, food, spirituality, electronics (think early days of hip-hop and rewiring the streets to power turntables), etc.

The focus should be redirected from inventing new technologies, because that will always come, to the cultures, spirituality, ethics and values around those technologies. How do we shape minds to think outside of the boxes of the oppressive cultures in which we live and develop responsible technologies? How do we cultivate cultures and critical thinking that will foster new technologies? How do we make available access to information, spaces and tools that will help people to create new technologies? It reminds me of Amiri Baraka’s essay, Technology and Ethos, where he says our machines are extensions of us, the creators, so they reflect our core values. Why does the typewriter look the way it does and why does it not function in another way? he asks. A lot of how we see technology is steeped in Western thought of efficiency, progress and making capital and not how it enriches our lives, the lives of other animals, plants and the Earth. We still have a lot of unlearning to do.

Afrofuturism has centered my thoughts, giving me an angle from which I could process them and research new ideas. It has allowed me as a writer to explore outside of conventional, singular narratives of Blackness, of gender, of sexuality, of culture, of religion and spirituality, of science and technology, of the construction of narratives themselves and so forth. Through it, I have a fresh way to look at the cultures of the world, including my own as an Afro-Caribbean-American woman, not through the mainstream’s eyes, but with eyes of understanding and connection. For example, I see now the genius of African-derived spirituality and religions like Vodou, which is often demonized and simplified through Christian morality and racist philosophy (and I was guilty of that as well); my research into it formed the basis of my upcoming essay, ‘The Electric Impulse:’ The Legba Circuit in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Afrofuturism was also the basis for my interest in mythic studies and mythic literacy, much of which has influenced my poetry writing as well.

3. What experiences and inspirations led you to create your blog? How has technology and the Internet revolutionized the way we share and participate in cultural phenomenon, such as Afrofuturism? What challenges are created by technology and the Internet?

The inspirations for my blog, Futuristically Ancient, came during my junior year in college. At that time, I was in a blogging class with Bridget Davis and the final assignment was to start our own blogs. I was thinking about what kind of blog I wanted to do, and I remembered watching a small portion on Youtube of John Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History and I liked the connections it made between the past, present and future of the Diaspora through the investigation of memory, music and digital technology. So, I centered my blog around those ideas at first before I even knew the term Afrofuturism. But as I began to research more into related materials to his film and while doing research for my thesis, I came across the term Afrofuturism, and then my blog developed into what it is now. The name of my blog actually comes from a phrase someone had used to describe poet Aja Monet and it stuck with me, so I used it in addition to Aker, the Egyptian god of the horizon representing yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Technology, especially the Internet, has played a significant part in the spread of information about Afrofuturism and other cultural phenomena. Personally, as a blogger, writer and researcher, it has allowed me to voice thoughts and ideas that I rarely saw in popular spaces and share them with others in ways I would not have been as easily able to do before; it has allowed me to connect with others who are working in similar fields or whose work has similar tendencies; it has allowed me to more easily find materials and information, especially rare ones, to share on my blog and to use for research. So, it has been helpful to a person like me, who is introverted and kind of shy, to be able to put myself out there on my own terms. Like me, others have benefited from the more accessible information and connection to people all over the world through new technology and the Internet, which has allowed ideas about Afrofuturism to spread fast.

However, as with anything, there are downsides to technology and the Internet. People will use technology and the Internet to try to discourage us, to attack us because they see what we are doing as a threat to their way of life, to try to silence us especially if they have more capital and power to do so, to use our ideas to sell their own agenda without crediting us or to use our ideas against us. In some ways, old oppressions are magnified through the Internet and new technology because of how quickly and easily information can spread.

4. Where do you see Afrofuturism 10 years from now? How can marginalized communities and youth gain more access to Afrofuturism?

Ten years from now, Afrofuturism can go in different possible ways. It could become bigger and go mainstream to the point it is diluted and appropriated so much that it lacks power and we move on to the next movement, term, idea or whatever. Maybe it will have another or several names 10 years from now. Or hopefully, it can evolve and grow along with the changes in our cultures and technologies, which is why I like that it does not have a fixed definition. I want us to continue defining it for ourselves, especially with the controversy over the origin of the term. I want Afrofuturism to change and shape shift into various meanings depending on the different localities it reaches and how it can best benefit them. As Octavia Butler wrote, “God is change,” let Afrofuturism do that as well.

As for marginalized communities and youth gaining access to it, gatekeepers who have closer access or are in more privileged spaces need to continue sharing it and the ideas within it with those who are more marginalized or younger. For example, in the art world, much of the art tends to stay in higher-class institutions that are either out of reach or out of the means of more marginalized groups. That is why I like to go to events at museums or other institutions and review them, so at least some of the information discussed is available online for others who may not have access to them can learn.

But in the opposite direction, marginalized communities and youth should be encouraged to explore outside of the boxes that are placed on them. Our cultures need to not limit our freedom of expression and questioning, as I have seen in some spaces, like often the church. Explore the world around you, the worlds alien to you, in any way you can, whether it is traveling to another town or to a place in your neighborhood you never went before, going to the library and getting a book that is outside of what you normally read, or even thinking an unconventional thought on a common thing. Keep an open mind to the various possibilities of the world outside of your own direct reality.

Those ideas to me are already inherent in Afrofuturism – the need to explore and to invent, even if it is only in your head. Afrofuturism is just a new term for many of things we already do, but are either told we don’t do, suppress them or don’t realize it. We use our memories of our pasts and traditions of our cultures, reshape them and build new futures out of them in the new places we disperse and in the face of new crises and limitations of survival.

Rasheedah Phillips is a Philadelphia public interest attorney, speculative fiction writer, the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair, and a founding member of Metropolarity.net. She recently independently published her first speculative fiction collection, “Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales).”

5 Career Mistakes Black Millennials Make in STEM Fields

When starting your career, you will make mistakes along the way. Everybody has. To help you navigate the early stages of your science, technology, engineering and math careers, we’ve compiled five mistakes Black millennials make in STEM fields, in hopes that you’ll either avoid them or know how to correct any you may have already made.

blerds mistakes 1

Not Having a Mentor

Like all industries, having a mentor is imperative, but it’s especially important for Black millennials in STEM fields to feel connected to others in order to move up. “Due to underrepresentation and limited access, several minority and female colleagues told me that feeling isolated at work was a big hindrance to their advancement and development early in their careers,” said Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a professor at the University of Georgia and director of its Atmospheric Sciences Program, in an interview with ebony.com.

Today in History: The Inventions of Garrett A. Morgan

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky, on March 4, 1877, and died in Cleveland on Aug. 27, 1963.

Morgan only had an elementary school education but he went on to invent and improve the sewing machine, traffic signal, hair-straightening products and an early gas mask.

In 1913, Morgan started the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Co. to market a hair-straightening solution. He created the solution by accident  in 1905. Eventually, the company offered a complete line of hair-care products for women.

On Oct. 13, 1914, Morgan received a patent for the gas mask. In 1916, Morgan used his mask design to rescue men trapped in a tunnel by a gas explosion under Lake Erie. Following the disaster, the city of Cleveland, honored him with a gold medal for his efforts.

He was the first Black man in Cleveland to own a car. After seeing a car accident at an intersection, he decided to improve the traffic signal. He developed a warning light to alert drivers that they would need to stop. On November 20, 1923, Morgan received a patent for the automatic traffic signal. He sold the rights to General Electric Corp. for $40,000.

 

Donald Glover Finally Takes Over as Spider-Man (In a Cartoon)

Donald Glover will be the voice behind Miles Morales, the half-Black, half-Hispanic youth who takes over as the new Spider-Man after Peter Parker died.

Four years ago, fans took to social media to push for Glover to play Spider-Man on the big screen in the Amazing Spider-Man reboot.

The social media campaign fell short as the role went to actor Andrew Garfield instead.

While Glover still won’t be making an appearance on the big screens as Spider-Man, he will be voicing Morales on Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors.

Glover’s character took on the role as the new arachnid-inspired superhero after the Green Goblin killed Peter Parker in 2011.

In a clip release by USA Today, Glover’s character is shocked to come face-to-face with Peter Parker, who seems to be unaware that he was killed in Morales’ universe, which led to the 13-year-old filling in for him.

Glover, who is known in the hip-hop industry as Childish Gambino, said he has always been a Spider-Man fan and just tried to be himself when voicing Morales.

“I just tried to be as me as possible, because you’re always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show,” he said according to The Verge.

Meanwhile, the show’s creator is just glad to see the minority character so well received by fans.

“It’s certainly long overdue,” creator Brian Michael Bandis said in 2011, when Morales was first introduced to Spider-Man fans. “Even though there’s some amazing African-American and minority characters bouncing around in all

the superhero universes, it’s still crazy lopsided.”

The new Spider-Man series will premier on Sunday, but the Huffington Post reports that the episode featuring Glover will not air until 2015.

Glover also added that he is excited to take on the role even though he would still like the chance to show off his spidey senses on the big screen.

“I still have hopes to do something like that one day,” he told USA Today. “I don’t look at this as second place. Spider-Man, he’s such an icon – you have to do something with him.”