These warm and intimate images of Atlanta explore the city that forged one of American music’s most influential and innovative subgenres.
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Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Billy Porter says he’ll bring genderless ‘magic’ to Cinderella
Billy Porter is playing the fairy godmother in the remake of Cinderella, and he said he’s soaking the whole experience in.
“It hit me when I was on the set last week, how profound it is that I am playing the Fairy Godmother — they call it the Fab G,” the Broadway gypsy, singer and actor told CBS News.
READ MORE: Billy Porter gives advice to parents upset about him wearing a dress on ‘Sesame Street’
Porter, who might be the first man to play the role, called the remake “a classic fairytale for a new generation.” He said the fairy godmother character is genderless to him so that’s how he will portray it.
“Magic has no gender,” Porter told CBS News. “We are presenting this character as genderless — at least that’s how I’m playing it. And it’s really powerful.”
“I think the new generation is really ready. The kids are ready. It’s the grownups that are slowing stuff down,” Porter added.
Pop singer Camila Cabello is set to play Cinderella in the Sony adaptation, directed by Kay Cannon and produced by James Corden. Missy Elliott will play the Town Crier and Minnie Driver was selected to portray Queen Beatrice. Pierce Brosnan is playing Prince Charming’s father, the king, and British actor Nicholas Galitzine will play Prince Robert. Idina Menzel was chosen for Evelyn, Cinderella’s evil stepmother.
Last year, Porter won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor for his work on FX’s Pose.
For Porter, what he loved most about that historic Emmy win was what that it gave visibility and representation.
“I represent something that I, as a young man, never had. That’s the greatest news. That’s where I have to leave it though so that I can continue to do the work,” Porter told CBS News.
READ MORE: Billy Porter has a few words for Dwyane Wade’s son, Zion: ‘Work It!’
Years ago, Porter also won a Tony and a Grammy for his work in Broadway’s Kinky Boots.
The remake hits theaters in February 2021.
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Tech Founder Isa Watson is Helping Professionals Build Community Offline In a Digital Age
Isa Watson is driving innovation within the tech industry and “connection economy” through culture and community. As the founder and CEO of Squad, Watson is devoted to making sure people are able to connect with others offline in a meaningful way.
Squad is a highly curated connection app for young professionals. And, Watson says it was born out of the need for people to better connect in real life.
“We’ve been so complacent in the way that we connect on social media. But those connections are very loose. And quite frankly, when you look at the increase in social media use it’s actually parallel with the increase in loneliness, depression, social isolation, and especially in the millennial and Gen Z generations,” said Watson.
In this day and age of influencers and isolation, Watson is using technology to help people build their squad.
A Squad meetup at Cornell University. (Image: Squad)
Offline, Squad curates different events and experiences. And when on-site, Squad members are matched with a group of people, which is facilitated through the app.
“Squad uses the proprietary personality algorithm to create squad matches. And those are small groups of three to four people that based on your personality we think you will get along with,” said Watson.
Given their proven success, Squad has raised upwards of $4 million in venture capital in Silicon Valley from prominent investors.
Despite the fact that many black women founders have not been able to raise more than $1 million in venture capital, Watson offers this advice, “It is a marathon, not a sprint. A lot of times in a 26-mile marathon, some miles are going to be slow. You might have to walk around and sit down a little bit. The journey is super long and hopefully, we all have a lot of time in front of us.
Cultural competency and authentic intelligence also play a role in the way that people are able to connect using Squad.
“Culture is that one thing that is an authentic director. When you’re online, you have all these, like curated types of interactions, and these curated types of ways that you present yourself. But when you’re in person and you’re live, right? You’re the embodiment of your own culture and your ability to embrace it better enables your ability to connect with somebody,” said Watson.
Because of the culture of Squad, Watson says that people feel comfortable showing up as they are to meetups and events.
As someone who is passionate about the work that she does, Watson is intentional about building healthy and supportive communities around her that support her showing up as her best self.
“When I think about how I’m building my community and how I evolve, it boils down to my needs. Sometimes, I need those people that I don’t even talk about work with and have amazing conversations about life and ideas. I need to be in community with my business partners; people who I can talk about my faith with; founder friends; and even investors. I’ve built a multi-dimensional community around me. I stand on the backs of them. They are incredibly pivotal not just to my success, but my mental health as well,” said Watson.
Watson’s community helps her to preserve her mental health and navigate life in a way that brings her happiness and joy. And, that is what she intends for Squad to do for others.
To learn more about Squad and to build your tribe, click here.
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Black Haircare Vendors Say They Their Business is Being Affected by the Coronavirus Outbreak
As the coronavirus continues to spread, black hair care businesses have started to feel the effects of the virus on the wholesale side of their business.
Due to the restrictions on imports from China, hair care businesses may soon struggle to fulfill customer orders on popular items such as wigs, weaves, and hair extensions from factories primarily based in China. The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has already killed six people in the United States and more than 3,000 across the globe.
Shannle Wallace, who oversees District Cheveux in Bowie, Maryland, told WUSA 9 that she made an order for hair extensions from her China-based supplier in January. Her order still hasn’t arrived. The vendor is blaming the delay on the virus. “I just never imagined coronavirus would affect me, being in the states,” Wallace told the station. “Not directly as far as being sick, but my business.”
Wallace also mentioned that the scare has also affected customers worried that the hair they purchase might be contaminated with the virus. “When they get their hair, (they ask), ‘Is it going to be contaminated?’” she added. The CDC had said the virus dies on the surface. “There is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures,” the agency wrote on its website. “Coronaviruses are generally thought to be spread most often by respiratory droplets.”
Stephanie Nolan, a beauty entrepreneur and owner of XOXO Virgin Hair based in Prince George’s Country, Maryland, said she is also feeling the effects of the coronavirus. “Due to the coronavirus, and the measures taken to cut down on the virus in China, people aren’t allowed to go to, or really return to, work,” Nolan told WUSA9.
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Chicago group aims to stop abductions of Black women and girls
Two Chicago women have started a group to draw attention to the number of Black women and girls abducted in the city.
Rosie Dawson and Roberta Logwood launched “Stop Taking Our Girls” to focus attention and support around finding these missing Black girls. These missing girls don’t always make the news or prompt full-out investigations compared with missing white girls and women. Some may not grasp the magnitude of the problem but Dawson and Logwood know it’s a real issue.
READ MORE: #BringBackOurGirls: After 5 years 112 girls of The Chiko Girls still missing
“It’s not an urban legend,” Dawson explained to WGN9. “They are doing it.”
Logwood has firsthand knowledge – because it almost happened to her.
“I was actually a victim,” Logwood told WGN9.
Back when Logwood was 17, she told the station that a man stole her cell phone. She said when she ran after him, she noticed a car pull up alongside her. Logwood said the driver popped his trunk and attempted to sway her to get in so they could go catch the thief.
She ran off instead.
“I did file a police report,” Logwood told WGN9. “The dispatch told me this had happened before and they succeeded in kidnapping the girl.”
More than 50 missing Black women have been killed since 2001, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Murder Accountability Project. Dawson believes the real number is much higher.
“I feel as though, when it comes to Black women, we just don’t count enough for people to care,” she said.
“Stop Taking Our Girls” meets once a month on the first Tuesday to brainstorm strategies to get the word out to stop these abductions. The group has offered a self-defense class and safety information to attendees. They want the culprits off the streets. And they also are working with local officials to “bring awareness” as to the significance of these cases.
“We hear a lot of different things in the streets,” Dawson told WGN9. “So we want to bring awareness to the elected officials, we want the police officers to know we appreciate them, but we need them to appreciate us in this community also.”
The grassroots group is selling t-shirts to raise money so it can eventually start offering rewards to find still missing women and girls.
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MLK III urges Alabama governor to stop execution of Nathaniel Woods
Martin Luther King III, son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., is calling on Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to stop Thursday’s execution of Nathaniel Woods.
READ MORE: Martin Luther King III to fans: Boycott NFL until Colin Kaepernick is signed
Woods was convicted of capital murder in the 2004 killings of three Alabama police officers. He has long said he was not the person responsible for shooting the officers and that he received poor representation during his 2005 trial, reported ABC News.
King reminded Ivey of his father’s prescient words that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He joins roughly 70,000 people who signed a petition on Change.org to halt Woods’ execution.
“In just 2 days, your state, and the state I was born in, is set to kill a man who is very likely innocent,” King wrote in a letter sent to Ivey on Tuesday.
“Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice. Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed?”
In his letter, King wrote that Ivey has declined to discuss the case with him in person or over the phone. Gina Maiola, the governor’s press secretary, told ABC News yesterday that Ivey’s office has not yet released a statement on Woods’ case,
Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm III, and Charles Bennett were shot and killed on June 17, 2004, while serving a misdemeanor assault warrant for Woods in Birmingham at what is believed to have been a crack house.
Kerry Spencer confessed to being the sole gunman who killed the police, however, both men were convicted on capital murder charges. Prosecutors argued that Woods and Spencer acted together to kill the officers.
Spencer is also awaiting execution.
Woods has sought to appeal his conviction, citing inadequate representation from his lawyer – mainly for withholding information that says he cannot be convicted of capital murder as an accomplice.
He said his previous counsel also convinced him not to accept a plea deal that would have given him a sentence of 20 to 25 years in prison.
READ MORE: Georgia death row inmate whose appeal dragged on dies in prison
The Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Woods’ appeal.
In ending his letter to Ivey, King III wrote: “‘My father said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ and so I pray that God grants you the courage to do the right thing: to delay his execution.”
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Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Sanders wins top prize on Super Tuesday, but Biden surges nationwide
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders seized victory in Super Tuesday’s biggest prize, California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins in the upper Midwest and African American strongholds in the South, in a dramatic offensive.
The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 presidential nomination fight.
The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democrats select their nominee before the party’s 2020 nomination fight will stretch all the way to the party’s July convention or be decided much sooner.
READ MORE: The Obama Gap: Dem presidential candidates face generational divide in Black voters
It was increasingly looking like a two-man race.
The former vice president and the three-term senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) Tuesday night.
“People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement,” Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders’ signature lines.
And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont.
“You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics,” Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. “This will become a contrast in ideas.”
Mike Bloomberg’s sole victory was in the territory of American Samoa. The billionaire former New York mayor will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Elizabeth Warren had yet to post any early wins and lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden in a devastating defeat.
Sanders, a Vermont senator, opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, Utah, and Colorado.
READ MORE: Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner uses church background to the hearts of voters
Yet Biden scored wins in Warren’s native Oklahoma and a swath of Southern states including Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas signaled he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats’ establishment wing.
In a sign of his strength across the country, Biden also won Minnesota, a state Sanders had hoped to put in his column.
Biden racked up the victories despite being dramatically outspent by moderate rival Bloomberg, who poured more than $19 million into television advertising in Virginia. Biden, meanwhile, spent less than $200,000.
A key to Biden’s success: Black voters. Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obama’s vice president, won 60% of the Black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate on Tuesday. Bloomberg earned 25%, and Sanders won about 10% of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate.
The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns and endorsed Biden.
Biden’s win in South Carolina, his first in the 2020 election season, rescued his campaign from the brink after three consecutive weak finishes last month.
Sanders had predicted victory in California, the day’s largest delegate prize. The state, like delegate-rich Texas, plays to his strengths, given its significant factions of liberal whites, large urban areas with younger voters and strong Latino populations.
In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against President Donald Trump in November.
Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party’s far-left flank that embraces his decadeslong fight to transform the nation’s political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party’s Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change.
Across the Super Tuesday states there were early questions about Sanders’ claims that he is growing his support from his 2016 bid.
Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. And in Virginia, where Democratic turnout surpassed 2016 by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders’ vote share dropped significantly.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country.
“We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016,” he said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida.
Warren was also fighting to be optimistic.
Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she’s willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn’t claim an outright victory anywhere.
“Here’s my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart,” Warren declared. She added: “You don’t get what you don’t fight for. I am in this fight.”
With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 309 Biden, 204 delegates to Sanders, 21 to Bloomberg, 19 to Warren and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift dramatically throughout the night as new states, none bigger than California, report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.
The ultimate nominee must ultimately claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season.
___
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Brian Slodysko in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Integrating electronics onto physical prototypes
MIT researchers have invented a way to integrate “breadboards” — flat platforms widely used for electronics prototyping — directly onto physical products. The aim is to provide a faster, easier way to test circuit functions and user interactions with products such as smart devices and flexible electronics.
Breadboards are rectangular boards with arrays of pinholes drilled into the surface. Many of the holes have metal connections and contact points between them. Engineers can plug components of electronic systems — from basic circuits to full computer processors — into the pinholes where they want them to connect. Then, they can rapidly test, rearrange, and retest the components as needed.
But breadboards have remained that same shape for decades. For that reason, it’s difficult to test how the electronics will look and feel on, say, wearables and various smart devices. Generally, people will first test circuits on traditional breadboards, then slap them onto a product prototype. If the circuit needs to be modified, it’s back to the breadboard for testing, and so on.
In a paper being presented at CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), the researchers describe “CurveBoards,” 3D-printed objects with the structure and function of a breadboard integrated onto their surfaces. Custom software automatically designs the objects, complete with distributed pinholes that can be filled with conductive silicone to test electronics. The end products are accurate representations of the real thing, but with breadboard surfaces.
CurveBoards “preserve an object’s look and feel,” the researchers write in their paper, while enabling designers to try out component configurations and test interactive scenarios during prototyping iterations. In their work, the researchers printed CurveBoards for smart bracelets and watches, Frisbees, helmets, headphones, a teapot, and a flexible, wearable e-reader.
“On breadboards, you prototype the function of a circuit. But you don’t have context of its form — how the electronics will be used in a real-world prototype environment,” says first author Junyi Zhu, a graduate student in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “Our idea is to fill this gap, and merge form and function testing in very early stage of prototyping an object. … CurveBoards essentially add an additional axis to the existing [three-dimensional] XYZ axes of the object — the ‘function’ axis.”
Joining Zhu on the paper are CSAIL graduate students Lotta-Gili Blumberg, Martin Nisser, and Ethan Levi Carlson; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) undergraduate students Jessica Ayeley Quaye and Xin Wen; former EECS undergraduate students Yunyi Zhu and Kevin Shum; and Stefanie Mueller, the X-Window Consortium Career Development Assistant Professor in EECS.
Custom software and hardware
A core component of the CurveBoard is custom design-editing software. Users import a 3D model of an object. Then, they select the command “generate pinholes,” and the software automatically maps all pinholes uniformly across the object. Users then choose automatic or manual layouts for connectivity channels. The automatic option lets users explore a different layout of connections across all pinholes with the click of a button. For manual layouts, interactive tools can be used to select groups of pinholes and indicate the type of connection between them. The final design is exported to a file for 3D printing.
When a 3D object is uploaded, the software essentially forces its shape into a “quadmesh” — where the object is represented as a bunch of small squares, each with individual parameters. In doing so, it creates a fixed spacing between the squares. Pinholes — which are cones, with the wide end on the surface and tapering down — will be placed at each point where the corners of the squares touch. For channel layouts, some geometric techniques ensure the chosen channels will connect the desired electrical components without crossing over one another.
In their work, the researchers 3D printed objects using a flexible, durable, nonconductive silicone. To provide connectivity channels, they created a custom conductive silicone that can be syringed into the pinholes and then flows through the channels after printing. The silicone is a mixture of a silicone materials designed to have minimal electricity resistance, allowing various types electronics to function.
To validate the CurveBoards, the researchers printed a variety of smart products. Headphones, for instance, came equipped with menu controls for speakers and music-streaming capabilities. An interactive bracelet included a digital display, LED, and photoresistor for heart-rate monitoring, and a step-counting sensor. A teapot included a small camera to track the tea’s color, as well as colored lights on the handle to indicate hot and cold areas. They also printed a wearable e-book reader with a flexible display.
Better, faster prototyping
In a user study, the team investigated the benefits of CurveBoards prototyping. They split six participants with varying prototyping experience into two sections: One used traditional breadboards and a 3D-printed object, and the other used only a CurveBoard of the object. Both sections designed the same prototype but switched back and forth between sections after completing designated tasks. In the end, five of six of the participants preferred prototyping with the CurveBoard. Feedback indicated the CurveBoards were overall faster and easier to work with.
But CurveBoards are not designed to replace breadboards, the researchers say. Instead, they’d work particularly well as a so-called “midfidelity” step in the prototyping timeline, meaning between initial breadboard testing and the final product. “People love breadboards, and there are cases where they’re fine to use,” Zhu says. “This is for when you have an idea of the final object and want to see, say, how people interact with the product. It’s easier to have a CurveBoard instead of circuits stacked on top of a physical object.”
Next, the researchers hope to design general templates of common objects, such as hats and bracelets. Right now, a new CurveBoard must built for each new object. Ready-made templates, however, would let designers quickly experiment with basic circuits and user interaction, before designing their specific CurveBoard.
Additionally, the researchers want to move some early-stage prototyping steps entirely to the software side. The idea is that people can design and test circuits — and possibly user interaction — entirely on the 3D model generated by the software. After many iterations, they can 3D print a more finalized CurveBoard. “That way you’ll know exactly how it’ll work in the real world, enabling fast prototyping,” Zhu says. “That would be a more ‘high-fidelity’ step for prototyping.”
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Design, power, and justice
When Sasha Costanza-Chock goes through airport security, it is an unusually uncomfortable experience.
Costanza-Chock, an MIT associate professor, is transgender and nonbinary. They use the pronouns they/them, and their body does not match binary norms. But airport security millimeter wave scanners are set up with binary, male/female configurations. To operate the machine, agents press a button based on their assumptions about the person entering the scanner: blue for “boy,” or pink for “girl.” The machine nearly always flags Costanza-Chock for a hands-on check by security officials.
“I know I’m almost certainly about to experience an embarrassing, uncomfortable, and perhaps humiliating search … after my body is flagged as anomalous by the millimeter wave scanner,” they write, recounting one such episode, in a new book about technology, design, and social justice.
This is an experience familiar to many who fall outside the system’s norms, Costanza-Chock explains: Trans and gender nonconforming people’s bodies, black women’s hair, head wraps, and assistive devices are regularly flagged as “risky.”
The airport security scanner is just one type of problem that emerges when technology does not match social reality. There are biases built into everyday objects, including software interfaces, medical devices, social media, and the built environment, and these biases reflect existing power structures in society.
The new book — “Design Justice: Community Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need,” published by the MIT Press — looks broadly at such shortcomings and offers a framework for fixing them while lifting up methods of technology design that can be used to help build a more inclusive future.
“Design justice is both a community of practice, and a framework for analysis,” says Costanza-Chock, who is the Mitsui Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing program. “In the book I’m trying to both narrate the emergence of this community, based on my own participation in it, and rethink some of the core concepts from design theory through this lens.”
Who designs?
The book has its roots in the activities of the Design Justice Network (DJN), founded in 2016 with the aim of “rethinking design processes so they center people who are often marginalized by design,” in the organization’s own description. (Costanza-Chock sits on the DJN’s steering committee.) The book draws on the concepts of intersectional feminism and the idea that technologies, and society more broadly, are structured by what the black feminist sociologist Patricia Hill Collins calls a “matrix of domination” in the form of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism.
The book also looks at the issue of who designs technology, a subject Costanza-Chock has examined extensively — for instance in the 2018 report “#MoreThanCode,” which pointed out the need for more systematic inclusion and equity efforts in the emerging field of public interest technology.
“There is a growing conversation about the lack of intersectional racial and gender diversity in the tech sector,” notes Costanza-Chock. “Many Silicon Valley firms are now producing diversity statistics every year. … But just because it’s being recognized doesn’t mean it’s going to be solved any time soon.”
The problem of designing fairly for society is not as simple as diversifying that workforce, however.
“Design justice goes farther,” Costanza-Chock says. “Even if we had extremely diverse teams of people working inside Silicon Valley, they would by and large still be mostly organizing their time and energy around producing products that would be attractive to a very thin slice of the global population — people who have disposable income, always-on internet connectivity, and broadband.”
Still, the two problems are related, and “Design Justice” references a wide range of innovation areas where a lack of design inclusivity generates problematic products. Many product users have long had to devise ad-hoc improvements to technology themselves. For instance, nurses have often been prolific innovators, tinkering with medical devices — a phenomenon partly unearthed, the book notes, by Jose Gomez-Marquez, co-director of MIT’s Little Devices Lab.
“Every day, all around us, people are innovating in small and large ways, based on everyday needs,” Costanza-Chock reflects. Although that’s not what we hear from tech firms, which often circulate narratives “about a lone genius inventor, who had a ‘eureka’ moment and created a product and brought it into the world.”
For instance, in one widely circulated story, Twitter’s origins flow from a flash of insight by co-founder Jack Dorsey. Another version assigns its beginnings to hackers and activists of the Indymedia network and to then-MIT researcher Tad Hirsch, who in 2004 created a tool for protestors called TXTMob, which served as the demo design for the first Twitter prototype.
“I’m not making a claim in the book for the one true origin story,” explains Costanza-Chock. “I’m emphasizing that technological innovation and design processes are quite messy, and that people are often marginalized from the stories we hear about the creation of new tools. Social movements are often hotbeds of innovation, but their contributions aren't always recognized.”
Better hackathons and more collaboration
Costanza-Chock does believe that design processes can be made more inclusive. In the book, they draw on years of experience teaching the MIT Collaborative Design Studio to synthesize lessons for inclusive innovation. For example: Try staging a hackathon that is more inclusive than the usual format of marathon sessions catered only to twenty-something coders.
“I really enjoy hackathons, and I have participated in many of them myself,” Costanza-Chock says. “That said, hackathons … tend to be dominated by certain kinds of people. They tend to be gendered, more accessible to younger people who don’t have kids, can take an entire day or weekend for free labor, and who can survive on pizza and soda.”
Whether designing a hackathon or building a long-term design team, “There are many ways to be better and more inclusive,” Costanza-Chock adds. “You need people with domain experience in the areas you’re working on, personal experience, or deep knowledge from study. If you’re working on Boston’s urban transit systems, you need to have people from different places in those systems on your designs teams, from the MBTA [Boston’s transit authority] to people that ride transit on a daily basis.”
Scholars who examine the social dimension of innovation have praised “Design Justice.” Princeton University sociologist Ruha Benjamin has said the book “offers essential tools for rethinking and reimagining the social infrastructure of tech design.”
Costanza-Chock, for one, hopes the book will interest people not only for the criticism it offers, but as a way of moving forward and deploying better practices.
“My book is not primarily or only critique,” Costanza-Chock says. “One of the things about the Design Justice Network is that we try to spend more time building than tearing down. I think design justice is about articulating a critique, while constantly trying to point toward ways of doing things better.”
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Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Laverne Cox and more will unveil projects at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
The lineup for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T just dropped and it includes 115 films from 33 countries.
The 19th edition of the annual festival will include a slate of inspiring, uplifting and impact-driven films exploring issues ranging from politics, and activism to Latinx and LGBTQ+ representation, the environment and more.
Fries!
The Laverne Cox-produced film, Disclosure made the list as well as With Drawn Arms, a documentary about gold medal sprinter and civil rights activist Tommie Smith and his experience at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico, with appearances from Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe and executive produced by John Legend.
The 2020 Tribeca Film Festival will run April 15-26.
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Mary J. Blige named Ambassador for 2020 American Black Film Festival
Mary J. Blige has just been named the AMbassador for the 2020 American Black Film Festival.
The two-time Oscar nominee and eight-time Grammy winner will be front and center when the annual film festival hits Miami Beach June 17-23.
Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Omari Hardwick and more stars takeover Miami for ABFF
“So many incredibly talented Black filmmakers have come out of the American Black Film Festival, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with and many I can’t wait to collaborate with. As an actress and producer, there couldn’t be a more important event to be a part of. I am a longtime supporter and admirer of ABFF and I am honored to be an ambassador and continue to help foster new talent,” Blige said in a statement to Deadline.
American Black Film Festival announces ‘Best of ABFF’ winners
“Mary J. Blige is a hip hop legend whose artistry has transcended into the film and TV industries. Her body of work personifies the ABFF mission, which is to celebrate and uplift the African American community through entertainment,” added General Manager of ABFF Ventures, Nicole Friday.
This year’s festival will present the first John Singleton Award for Best First Feature Film as well as ABFF Fit, a new health and wellness initiative; and ABFF Pride, a social impact showcase centered on the Black LGBTQIA community.
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Spike Lee gets into dispute at MSG after reportedly using wrong entrance
In addition to being a prolific filmmaker, Spike Lee is known for being a New York Knicks superfan. But now it appears his days of courtside antics during home games may be coming to an end thanks to a recent altercation at Madison Square Garden.
According to ESPN, Lee will likely be missing from his infamous seat for the rest of the season and Tuesday morning appeared on First Take to confirm that he’s taking a hiatus from Madison Square Garden.
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“I’m coming back next year, but I’m done for the season,” the award-winning screenwriter and director said. “I’m done.”
This bold and surprisingly declaration comes just a day after a now-viral video began circulating on social media showing the agitated Knicks fan yelling at stadium security outside an MSG elevator.
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New York Knicks Statement on Spike Lee pic.twitter.com/19JcvhFKO7
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) March 3, 2020
Many speculated that Lee had been thrown out of the arena but a spokesperson for the Knicks maintains that was untrue and that Lee has simply used the wrong entrance and was being redirected.
By halftime, Lee and Knicks owner James Dolan were spotted shaking hands and smiling like old friends and by the second half the team says he was in his sideline seat all the way through the final buzzer as his team defeated the Rockets 125-123.
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“The idea that Spike Lee is a victim because we have repeatedly asked him to not use our employee entrance and instead use a dedicated VIP entrance — which is used by every other celebrity who enters The Garden — is laughable,” the official statement read. “It’s disappointing that Spike would create this false controversy to perpetuate drama. He is welcome to come to The Garden anytime via the VIP or general entrance; just not through our employee entrance, which is what he and Jim agreed to last night when they shook hands.”
But the 62-year old says this account of events is merely the Knicks’ attempt at “spin.” He pushed back that he had been using the same entrance to enter the Garden for the entire 28 years he has had season tickets. He also seemed especially upset that the team said he and Dolan were socializing amicably at halftime.
“I wasn’t shaking his hand,” Lee said. “In fact, when he came over, I didn’t get up right away.”
Lee went on to add, “I’m being harassed by James Dolan. I don’t know why.”
The post Spike Lee gets into dispute at MSG after reportedly using wrong entrance appeared first on TheGrio.
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