artist, author, educator, researcher

Nettrice Gaskins

Dr. Nettrice R. Gaskins teaches, writes, "fabs”, and makes art using algorithms and machine learning. She has taught multimedia, visual art, and computer science with high school and college students. She earned a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. She received a doctorate in Digital Media from Georgia Tech in 2014. Dr. Gaskins is a 2021 Ford Global Fellow and she is currently the assistant director of the Lesley STEAM Learning Lab at Lesley University. She is an advisory board member for the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. Her first full-length book, Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation is available through The MIT Press. Gaskins' AI-generated artworks can be viewed in journals, magazines, museums, and on the Web. Her series of 'featured futurist' portraits are on view at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building through early July 2022. Her 30-foot AI-generated portrait of the late artist Faith Ringgold is on view as a mural at the MoCADA Ubuntu Garden in Brooklyn, NY.

visual artist

Rashid Zakat

Rashid Zakat (he/his) combines film, music, photography, and creative space-making in work that engages with Black social and spiritual life. His short films, documentaries, and music videos feature original content and archival material, including images of migration, worship, uprising, dance, and popular culture. Zakat’s work has been shown in Philadelphia at the BlackStar Film Festival, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and The Barnes Foundation, among others.

technologist

Abran Maldonado

Abran Maldonado is an internationally recognized AI thought leader, keynote speaker, OpenAI ambassador, and co-founder of Create Labs, a Black and Brown founded startup disrupting the generative AI and digital human design space. With years of experience in DEI, entertainment and education technology, including a background in Hip-Hop, digital media, and youth culture, Abran brings a unique perspective to the AI community. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, he is dedicated to advancing diversity in tech and has worked to expand 5G VR/AR edtech solutions to schools nationwide. He is recognized as one of the first AI prompt engineers of the ChatGPT era and the creator of the first GPT-powered AfroLatina virtual avatar, C.L.Ai.R.A. Abran's pioneering work in generative AI and digital human design has earned him a reputation as a visionary in the development of AI technology, and he is dedicated to bringing culture and innovation to life with authentic, AI-powered immersive experiences.

Technologist, writer, researcher

Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell is committed to using his vast digital skills—as hacker, developer, operational security trainer, security researcher, and data journalist—for good, Matt has worked in various capacities at the intersection of technology and social justice. He directed digital safety and privacy for Tactical Technology Collective, a global NGO based in Berlin, and he has trained countless activists, journalists, and NGOs in digital security, safety, and privacy. In line with his personal work, which focuses on marginalized, aggressively monitored, over-policed populations, he founded and leads CryptoHarlem, impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominantly African American community in Upper Manhattan. He has worked for private security firm GJS Security, helping to protect devices from hackers. He has also worked as a data journalist at the New York Times and as a developer at CNN, Time Inc., NewsOne, and other media outlets.

technologist

John Threat

John Threat is a world renowned hacker, futurist, global security issues advisor, artist (PS1, MoMA), writer/director, professor, and former bicycle messenger. He’s been on the cover of Wired Magazine, featured on 60 Minutes, and pops up in everything from The New York Times to Telemundo. He consults with several futurist think tanks and co-founded Rip Space http://rip.space an art/tech/media/hacker project and exhibition space in Los Angeles.

Facilitator

Organizational Development Practitioner, Cultural Worker

Jessica Solomon

For over 15 years, Jessica "Jess" Solomon has supported changemakers and organizations in the social and cultural sectors. As an organization development consultant and coach, she applies a holistic approach, blending creativity, theory, and collaboration to enhance organizational capacity. Jessica is known for her facilitation expertise and thought partnership for processes that encompass leadership and team development, process improvement, culture change, and strategic planning.

Principal Investigator

kennedy center social practice resident

Tahir Hemphill

Tahir Hemphill is a creative technologist whose practice investigates the role systems play in the generation of form and the role collaborative knowledge production plays in the enrichment of communities. These influences are synthesized into his current creative pursuits at the Rap Research Lab, a community-based creative technology studio that uses a Hiphop framework to develop new ways for people to engage with data and culture. Tahir builds on Hiphop’s legacy as a transformative and innovative genre that revolutionized global cultural practices by pioneering new, 21st century digital forms that harness big data, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and social networks to create opportunities for cultural research, creative competition, individual expression, and collaborative problem solving.

comedian, musician, filmmaker

Willonius Hatcher

Willonius Hatcher is an award-winning Digital Strategist, AI expert, and Comedian, a modern renaissance man unafraid to break boundaries. He is the creator of Clubhouse’s first live serialized audio drama, critically acclaimed soap opera, 'The Young and The Thirsty.”Hatcher has guided world-renowned brands like Samsung and Google to transformative marketing success. His innovations have not only been celebrated on esteemed platforms like CNN and MTV but have also earned him speaker roles at Art Basel, Tedx, EthDenver, SXSW, and MIT Reality Hack. As the visionary founder of Blerd Factory, Hatcher's disruptive approach continues to reshape conventional strategies, reflecting his commitment to creative excellence and diverse voices.

Filmmaker, artist, musician

Terence Nance

Terence Nance is an Artist, Musician, and Filmmaker born in Dallas, Texas in what was then referred to as the State-Thomas community. Nance wrote, directed, scored, and starred in his first feature film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in 2013, was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2014, and debuted his Peabody award-winning television series Random Acts of Flyness on HBO in the summer of 2018. In the fall of 2018, it was announced that Nance was tapped to write, produce and direct Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring Lebron James, and in 2020 Terence released his first EP, THINGS I NEVER HAD under the name Terence Etc. In 2020 he also partnered with filmmakers Jenn Nkiru, Bradford Young, Nanette Nelms and Mishka Brown to form The Ummah Chroma Creative Partners – a directors collective and production company. This team released KILLING IN THY NAME in collaboration with Rage Against The Machine in January of 2021. In 2022, Terence released both Random Acts of Flyness Program II as well as his debut album, VORTEX. In 2023, Terence’s first solo exhibition, “Swarm,” opened at the ICA Philadelphia.

immersive realities lab for the humanities

Marisa Parham

Marisa Parham is Professor of English and Digital Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, where as P.I. she directs the African American Digital and Experimental Humanities initiative (AADHUM) and NarraSpace, an immersive storytelling lab focused on BIPoc experiences. Parham’s current teaching and research projects focus on texts and technologies that problematize assumptions about time, space, and bodily materiality. She is particularly interested in how such terms share histories of increasing complexity in literary and cultural texts produced by African Americans, and how this connection enables experimental approaches to digital humanities, electronic narrative, and technology studies.