Fostering Equity: Opportunities for Active Engagement
I was a student majoring in Computer Graphics and teaching art in and around New York City when I discovered that most of the communities where I taught lacked access to computers… or programs that taught people how to use them. At the time, I had 24–7 access to a lab with state-of-the-art computer technology but there were no black women students or professors in my program. There were no bridges to communities.
Before grad school, I frequently taught classes at or for Jamaica Arts Center (JAC) in Queens, New York. During that time, I proposed to start a computer art club in one of the community centers. JAC raised the funds and invited me back, so I got permission from my school to do an independent study and build my first lab at South Jamaica Houses.
In the 1980s and 1990s, South Jamaica was one of several New York City neighborhoods victimized by the national crack cocaine epidemic. Several gangs operated in the neighborhood. It was here, in the basement of the housing community center, that I built my first computer art/graphics lab. The main program I used to teach youth with was SuperPaint, a graphics program capable of both bitmap painting and vector drawing.
I brought games such as Prince of Persia and Myst for them to play. My hope was that the lab would become a hang out spot for the youth but whenever I left the lab stayed closed for fear of theft. Unfortunately, this did not deter theft and we had to re-order a whole new lab after Christmas. Soon after that, the sewage system flooded the basement but miraculously spared the new computers that were on tables.
The South Jamaica community computer lab was not sustainable but I continued to establish labs in Boston and bring mobile labs to students from under-resourced communities in Atlanta. I worked with software developers to create tools to practice simulating Afrofuturist artworks. My goal was to be more intentional about creating bridges to communities and explore ways that people from these communities engaged with technology.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I met with adults and young people online to do hands-on projects. Technology was emphasized but it wasn’t the primary goal. The tech is a means of engagement when learners are being met at the optimal level of challenge and their abilities. Some questions my work addresses has to do with whether or not the tech is being used to do old things in new ways, or does it provide opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist. My hope is that it is mostly the latter.