Unbought and Unbossed |
Dear friends, I am excited to announce our first event of 2024, which
will be held in partnership with Barnard College on Friday, February 23, in
New York City. I will deliver a keynote address on Data Activism, followed by
a special Decompress performance. More details can be found below. RSVP
for D4BL X Barnard College - Data Activism + Decompress Every month at Data for Black Lives is Black History
Month. Studying the lives of those who came before us, who paved the way, is
inherent to our daily work of reclaiming data as a tool for social change.
Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first
woman and Black person to vie for the Presidential nomination from a major
political party. She was bold, courageous, and ahead of her time. Recently, I hiked through Shirley Chisholm State Park
after a close study of her autobiography and texts written about her
posthumously. As I stood atop a hill that overlooked the sweeping views of
Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, and Queens, I thought about how far into the future
she was able to see - how her goal was to do more than win a Presidential
nomination and election but to build a coalition that would change politics
and the very fabric of our democracy. Her existence proved that Black people, and Black women
in particular, were not only competent and able to govern but were uniquely
advantaged because of our 360 degree view of America’s past, present, and
future. She went against the grain: her first speech in Congress was in
opposition to a Vietnam War appropriations bill. She demanded that the US
stop funding war, and fund necessary programs for children and families, a
stance that brought her backlash then, and would have now. Help
us stay Unbought and Unbossed At Data for Black Lives, Chisholm’s legacy, evocated in
her 1972 Presidential campaign slogan "Unbought and Unbossed", has
become our blueprint. We remain uncompromised in our demands to dismantle the
structures that put the power of data into the hands of a few. We know that
no one benefits from the proliferation of advanced automated systems like
artificial intelligence without political channels for directly impacted
people to contest their decisions. Like Chisholm, our goal is to remain unbought. With
your support we can continue speaking truth to power, change the cast of
characters, and shift the status quo through groundbreaking research,
advocacy,
and movement
building. Please consider making a donation today. We have some incredibly exciting announcements to come,
so please stay tuned. And if you are in New York, I hope to see you this
month! All the best, Yeshimabeit |
Barnard
College: Data Activism with Data for Black Lives |
|
Join us for our first event of 2024. We are thrilled to
partner with Barnard College for a special keynote address by our Founder and
CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner, on the theme of Data Activism. After the keynote, we will be bringing the rave to the
library with a special Decompress performance at Barnard’s Milstein Library
Movement Laboratory. This event is free and open to the public. |
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