Session: An Afrofuturism Journey playing Afro-Rithms From The Future (ARFTF) in Democratizing the Future.
Type: Workshop
Afro-Rithms From The Future game values:
- Afro-Rithms From The Future is a forecasting game that suggests that by changing the traditional white, patriarchal normative gaze of racism and lens through which we normally view the world, we aim to change the game to expand alternative perceptions of the world through Black and (BIPOC) perspectives where Black and BIPOC futures are central and matter.
- The term Afro-Rithms is intentional to center the ubiquity of algorithms in our digital society to shift the digital lens that further reinforces and perpetuates dominant inequities to enable us to expand our range of possible and more equitable, liberating multiverses.
- We not only aim to democratize the future, we intentionally anticipate democratic Anti-Racist Futures where Black and BIPOC futures matter.
- A central question driving this game asks how do we democratize the Future with Afro-Queer AI as the starting point to create liberating, inclusive futures?
Video
See the video on Vimeo from APF.
Presenters
Lonny Avi J Brooks (he/him)
Associate Professor & Research Affiliate, Institute For The Future, Creative Director, Afrofuturist Podcast Network & Black Speculative Arts Movement
Lonny Avi J Brooks is Associate Professor in the department of communication, California State University, East Bay, where he piloted the integration of futures thinking into the communication curriculum beginning in 2003. Emerging in recent years as a leading voice of Afrofuturism 2.0, Brooks contributes prolifically to journals, conferences, anthologies on the subject, and is co-producer/co-creator, with Ahmed Best, of The Afrofuturist Podcast & co-designer of the forecasting games Afro-Rithms From The Future & United Queerdom 2054; Creative Director, Black Speculative Arts Movement, celebrating the Black imagination; Research Affiliate, the Institute For The Future & Research Fellow, Long Now Foundation.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/avilonny
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avilonny/
Kimberly Kay Daniels (she/her)
Foresight Researcher, Analyst, Writer, and Consultant
Kay Daniel is a change agent at heart. She is passionate about making small impacts that have a ripple effect in making lives better, organizations smarter, environments greener, and places more resilient. She is a lifelong learner dedicated to using foresight to help others learn, grow, and succeed.
Lacey Wozny (she/her)
Co-Founder and Director of Programs and Experience at Fathomers
Lacey Wozny is Co-Founder and Director of Programs and Experience at Fathomers, a creative research institute dedicated to producing sites and encounters that challenge us to live and act differently in the world. For the past two years, Fathomers has supported Brooks, Best and The Afrofuturist Podcast Network. Working together with game designer Eli Kosminsky the team continues play-testing and refining the Afro-Rithms from the Future game for eventual public release and distribution as a school curriculum tool.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fathomers
Nina Woodruff-Walker (she/her)
Walker, Executive Director, Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA)
Nina is an Oakland native and MOCHA Executive Director, (www.mocha.org) who became a “MOCHA kid” in 1989 when she connected through the East Oakland Youth Development Center. When Oakland schools removed art programming from the curriculum, MOCHA became an art-making refuge during her teenage years. She found delight in identifying different ways to use art to create, express, shape & influence, even getting an experience in giving back as a MOCHA youth board member. This cemented her passion for community service. Nina is a poet who loves visual arts and understands the value of providing a platform for children to express, create & teach.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MOCHAarts
Instagram: https://instagram.com/Mochaarts
Facebook: https://facebook.com/mochaarts
Ahmed Best (he/him)
Artist, Futurist
Ahmed is an Adjunct Lecturer at USC School Of Dramatic Arts, Senior Fellow at USC Annenberg school for Communication and Journalism, Host of STAR WARS Jedi Temple Challenge, Host of the Afro-futurist podcast. CEO of BISN Media. Ahmed is a writer, director, producer, actor, musician, host and futurist. He starred in the Broadway musical Stomp. He then he went on to be the first CGI lead character in a motion picture starring as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Mike Batista (he/him)
Equitable Games Group
Mike is a Baltimore-based healthcare entrepreneur and one half of Equitable Games Group, a board game publisher focused on creating high-quality games based on social and educational themes that have the potential to impact people with a variety of ages, backgrounds, and identities. Equitable Games Group has designed successful titles securing funding through Kickstarter and winning accolades like top three placement in HABA’s international game design competition.
Alan Clark (they/them)
Super Villain
Alan Saint Clark your friendly neighborhood Super Villain and ontological mechanic here to spread mental viruses. Planting and germinating across the multiverse in the form of comics. Phantomelectric.com
Calvin Williams (he/him)
Cultural Strategist
Calvin Williams is a Cultural Strategies Fellow at Movement Strategy Center. He is a founding creator of Wakanda Dream Lab, producing immersive storytelling experiences through mixed reality art platforms. He conspires with fellow afrofuturists to produce immersive spaces for new stories and storytellers of liberation to emerge. He cosplays as an immersive experience curator, a podcast host for The Big We, and impact producer for Offsides Productions. He lives in Oakland with his Beloveds, Leila & Baby Malik.
