What Counts? Stories of Tech, Race and the Planet
How does AI and Machine Learning change the way we tell stories about race, disability and the planet? Who decides what and who counts? Can an algorithm determine whether a child should be removed from their family? How can we move the conversation beyond diversity when talking about the social implications of automated decision making? Who gets to participate in the conversation and what counts when we measure life? We will begin with a spoken word performance by Earl Majette and theatrical skit by actress/playwright Fariso Jordan. Their shared experience teaching their craft to teens incarcerated in NYC juvenile detention centers will inform their pieces. Then join us for an interdisciplinary panel discussion moderated by NYU Information Law Fellow Julia Powles featuring Columbia University Professor Peter Bearman, Cornell Computer Science PhD Student and Co-Founder of Black In AI, Rediet Abebe and Viriginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor.
Living on Roosevelt Island: What Matters in The End?
Join us for an evening at Coler Hospital, where three clinicians will share their diverse clinical experience and the contextual variations in end of life decision making. The clinicians will discuss: What are the challenges and opportunities in providing end of life care in a racially and religiously diverse city? Are nursing home facilities a necessary evil or a place we ought to celebrate when there’s no one to care for us at home? What is a ‘community centered’ approach to end of life care? Theater, music, and sculpture developed through community workshops exploring end of life themes will be showcased alongside the panel. The residents of Coler Hospital are at the center of the day’s programming because advanced care planning matters to them, given significantly higher mortality rates in long-term care facilities. Hearing their voices is central to developing a more inclusive community. Imagine, what can we all learn from voices of Coler residents, who’ve confronted the universal fragility of the human body through their disabilities?
Get out, Roosevelt Island!
We are thrilled to organize a free community screening of Jordan Peele’s film Get Out, with a panel discussion to follow. If you haven’t seen the movie, while the horror plot points are fantastical, it offers a very real commentary on the issues at hand. The recent community discussion brought differing perspectives to the surface about liberal racism and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of seemingly idyllic small towns, like ours. For the first time in a while, there are a lot of people emotionally invested in a conversation about what the future of our neighborhood is, and who ought to be included. Our vision for the panel discussion is to open up a discourse on the history of Roosevelt Island, and provide a platform for a lot of different voices to imagine together what a more inclusive community could look like.