Wednesday, June 2, 2021 DARK MATTERS Workshop (Youth) Timelines: 2: Civil Writes Project, 4: Richie Wills Workshops & Events
Join us for a youth writing workshop in collaboration with Squeaky Wheel’s opening of Dark Matters—an interactive web experience exposing the absence of Black speech in the datasets used to train voice interface systems in consumer artificial intelligence products such as Alexa and Siri.
How does your relationship with Artificial Intelligence like Siri and Alexa affect the way you navigate the world? What does inclusive technology look like? What kind of technology would you like to see in the world?
We will have a discussion session where we analyze the technology around us, followed by a creative writing session where we envision possible futures with transformative technologies surpassing racism and inequities.
Optional: To prepare for the workshop, read this article from The Verge.
Where: Online Workshop
Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Time: 4:30 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
TO REGISTER:
Email the Writing Center at jbwc@justbuffalo.org.
This workshop is FREE, aimed at young students aged 12–21, and limited to 10 participants.
ACCESSIBILITY NOTE:
Writers are welcome to participate with or without video and audio during any of our virtual sessions. If you have any questions/issues accessing any of these opportunities, please let us know and we will work with you to make sure you can participate.
About the Teaching Artist
RICHIE WILLS holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Richie has worked as a Writing Center and BABEL volunteer and as an outreach coordinator for Words on the Street and The Mocha Center. He is also contributing writer for The Galactic Tribe and continues to work as a community organizer. Richie believes in the power of the written word and storytelling to bring people together and break barriers.