I’m ecstatic for the new Marvel movie Black Panther, which opens this Friday. For me, it’s much less about watching another action movie — my favorite genre of film — or getting to see what happens next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s much more personal than that. Black Panther means a lot because I finally, after 31 years on this earth, I get to see a black superhero star in a major franchise film. That’s not to say I haven’t loved every iteration of Superman, Batman, Ironman and the
We are so used to the narrative of the starving artist, or the former star crashing and burning, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at those hip-hop artists using tech to buck the trend. The ones who have been wise enough to capitalize on tech’s slow coup-ted of every industry. The ones who have been investing in startups, raising capital and founding their very own. This is far from the canonical list, and I’ve missed out on many others [honorable mention to Chamillionaire, and of course Dr.
Denise Hamilton is founder and CEO of WatchHerWork, a digital media training platform closing the professional achievement gap for women. It’s February and our focus shifts to celebrating Black History Month. Celebrating history is important, and acknowledging the contributions of Black heroes is critical to understanding the true story of America. I love hearing about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but I’m equally interested in MAKING Black history and in honoring those who are working every day to expand the boundaries of the Black experience in America. One group
Tell us about yourself and what you do? I am a proud Londoner living in New York, passionate about creative marketing and innovation in the media tech space. This currently plays out for me in my day job at Verizon, where I work within the innovation team as a Senior Product Manager. I predominately lead teams of engineers, designers, and strategists to focus on how we can better video content experiences for the millions of customers globally. Verizon’s video content spans across their FIOS cable network, streaming services or range
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? I’m Joshua Kissi I’m from New York City specifically. The Bronx but I have also spent time living in Brooklyn. I’m a 28-year-old photographer, creative director, and entrepreneur. My dream is to empower creatives to continue to tell stories that challenge the world we live in today; Resulting in a better tomorrow by any medium necessary. What’s the story behind TONL. What made you start it? TONL was started by myself and partner Karen Okonkwo, I knew as a photographer
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? I am a product designer at Netflix. I’ve been there for about two years. I work on the studio engineering team which means that I build apps and software to help manage our Netflix productions more efficiently, like Stranger Things, etc. How does that work? It’s software that helps the production team with the whole process of making the show? There’s a little bit of everything. Netflix is a studio — we’re trying to be the biggest studio. So what
A Black woman in tech who has raised over $1 million for her company is considered a unicorn. Those whose companies have been acquired are even rarer. In a time when M&A is the new IPO, the number of black women who have had successful exits is as much a celebration of their accomplishments as it as a measure of the industry’s progress. Acquisitions don’t happen in a vacuum. They are often the result of access to a strong network, funding, social proof, company visibility and knowledge of, or guidance
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? After being raised in Saginaw, MI, I graduated from the prestigious Tuskegee University with a BS in Computer Science. I came to the DC area right after college after landing a Government contracting gig. I did a lot of soul-searching those first few years of my career after I realized Government work wasn’t for me. I eventually broke into the startup world which is much more my cup of tea (I like my tattoos and jeans). After some time, a
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? I’m originally from Lagos, Nigeria. I moved to the US about four years ago to attend New York University. I currently work at LinkedIn as a software engineer on the design systems team. My team creates the building blocks for developers across the company to build their sites. Outside of work I consider myself more of an artist that uses code as a tool. I graduated from the “make your own major” school at NYU, and my concentration was at the
When it comes to fostering diversity and inclusion in your company, either go hard or go home. Seriously. You can’t do light touch diversity and inclusion. It’s not a box to tick, a “nice to have”, or something you can dip in and out of. It requires long-term commitment and a significant investment of your resources. After all, what thing worth having comes easy in this world? I won’t bore you with the overwhelming data on diversity’s positive impact on profitability, McKinsey among a number of other reputable firms have
