@moma's "Black Reconstructions: Prosperity and Innovation" ended w/ George Washington Carver: "Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible." Many thoughts! moma.org/calendar/event… 
@TracieDHall1 moderated fantastic panel w/ Amanda Williams (insta: @awstudioart), Walter Hood (Hood Design Studio, they are hiring!!), + Rick Lowe (pioneering artist + @PRH_Houston, also hiring!!), drawing from @moma show "Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America"
Some things that stuck with me: 1st one from Hood, who discussed "the body as a commemorative space", e.g. a memorial tattoo for deceased loved one. ✨Also relates to "community as archive" from before and makes me think of Indigenous tattooing. nationalobserver.com/2018/08/23/the…
Wilson brought up how "critical" data and information are to understanding the present and modeling the future. "What if we use different metrics?" "What if we innovate and imagine something else?" Expansive analysis instead of reductive.
@TracieDHall1 addressed the #DigitalDivide through the lens of race and socioeconomic status. There are millions of people without adequate internet access in the US. "We are talking about two information worlds." Innovation is a necessity in this context. pewtrusts.org/en/research-an…
@TracieDHall1 also succinctly put into words what we've been observing in Black digital culture: "Creativity is now at the center of social capital. That means creative production is going to be policed." I'll add "surveilled" and "commodified" as well... cas.nyu.edu/content/dam/ny…
Williams! Not Wilson 😭
Williams asked "Why do we only get one shot?" Why is the first chance so often the last for Black innovators? Can we get room to experiment without fear of failure? Can we conceive of risk as one of many factors to consider and not the end of something new ? racism, yes, + yes.
Related, Lowe calls on white Americans to have difficult conversations amongst themselves about race and ways forward (e.g. reparations). Here too the fear of failure feeds inaction. We all need to accept that we're going to get stuff wrong. And then we gotta keep going anyway.
And lastly there was a discussion of nonprofits as paternalizing bureaucracies that do more to uphold the status quo than to bring change (ensuring the continued relevance of their missions/cementing control over underserved groups). That's more than 240 characters tho so 🐸☕️
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
