#illinois tech

[watertowercraftco]

68° and sunny means I spent my time between classes this morning working on this new commission outside.

[tdwf-articles]

[artistmacposts]

[adeebahmed]

Graduation Speech Transcript

“During my time in college I studied computer science with a strong focus on software engineering. I’m blessed to say my hard work paid off and that I’ve secured a full-time job at the Target Corporation headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I interned there last summer and had a great experience, and I’m looking forwarding to starting my career!

Now, I’ve never gave a speech before, so I’m going to tell a story that instead. It is a story that resonates with me. The story is about the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates and his family.

One day Gates, his wife, his son, and son’s friends go to a nice restaurant for dinner. Gates and his wife sits at a table, and his son, along with his friends, sit at another table. Both parties order their dinner, the server comes out with the food and serves them both. The food was delicious and the service was excellent, then it came around time to pick the check. The server goes to the son’s table first, picks up the check and receives a $100 tip. The server was overjoyed, with a $100 tip from Gate’s son. Then the server goes over to Bill and his wife, with a smile on their face, and collects the check. Upon opening the checkbook, they see only a $10 tip from Bill Gates. Shocked, the server actually confronted gates and asked “Why did you only tip me $10? Your son tipped $100.” Gate’s response is something that I’ll remember forever, he said “Well me, I’m but the son of a farmer, my son however, well he’s the son of Bill Gates.”

The moral of the story is, no matter how great or big you become, never forget where you came from. And always be humble. On that note, I’d like to thank my father for all the sacrifices he’s made for me and my brother. He’s worked harder than anyone I know to provide for me and my family, and I can only return his kindness by striving doing the same. Although he can’t hear me right now, I’d like to say thank you dad, you’ve raised me in to the man I’ve become and I hope that I’ve made you proud.

Now I should probably speak about what I learned in college. Besides engineering, I learned many soft skills through the roles I took in my fraternal organization, Pi Kappa Phi. It has taught me the importance of community and how to inspire others towards a common goal. These are things that cannot be learned in a classroom and it really showed me what it means to be a part of something bigger than yourself. I’ve made great and lifelong friends because of it and am thankful that they are a part of my life. Shout out to my friends from A-town too! Th You guys have managed keep it real with me throughout the years and I’m looking forward.

To conclude, I’d like to thank everyone for coming out again. It means a lot to me and my family. Again, I’ll be starting at Target in July so I’ll be around for another month or two. Thank you all again for coming and have a safe trip back! Asalmualakum.”

[kenkofoto]

Civic Duty.

[khujepabona]

Yooo apparently in a few weeks I get a free tshirt from IIT? Nice

[sparklebliss-blog]

Afrofuturism: A Reading List for Black History Month

This is a longer version of a list of reading recommendations generated for a poster on Afrofuturism I designed for the IIT Department of Humanities. This list was made in collaboration with Sean Cashbaugh (University of Texas), John Cline (independent scholar), and Shannon Frech (Trafalgar Square Publishing), Melanie Haupt (University of Texas), ad Shirley Thompson Marshall (University of Texas).

There are a lot more books, articles, and other works that are part of Afrofuturism. If you would like me to add something to the list, just message me -- I'll try to keep it updated.

Novels

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel R. Delany

Kindred, Octavia Butler

The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead

Birth of a Dark Nation, Rashid Darden

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Amos Tutuola

The Kundalini Equation, Steven Barnes

Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed

The Famished Road, Ben Okiri

My Soul to Keep, Tananarive Due

Nonfiction (biographies and critical works)

Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, John F. Szwed

Discourse on Colonialism, Aimé Césaire

The Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon

Black No More, George Schuyler

Race in American Science Fiction, Isiah Lavender

Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs, Michael Veal

New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton's Cultural Critique, Ronald M. Radano

Astrofuturism: Science, Race and Visions of Utopia, De Witt Douglas Kilgore

Black Space: Imagining Racein Science Fiction Film, Adilifu Nama

Afrofuturism:  The World of Black Science Fiction and Fantasy Culture, Ytasha Womack

Poetry

Life on Mars, Tracy K. Smith

Quantum Lyrics, A Van Jordan

Other Media

Social Text issue 71: Afrofuturism, Alondra Nelson (editor)

The Shadows Took Shape, exhibit at The Studio Museum (which includes this rad Tumblr: shadowstookshape)

"Space Traders," a short film by Reginald Hudlin based on the short story by Derrick Bell: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpbz6g_space-traders-full-movie_news

"Afrofuturism: A Talk with Artist Coco Cufsco -- Black Subjectivity Meets Science-Fiction": http://www.afropunk.com/m/blogpost?id=2059274%3ABlogPost%3A1002489