I’m an urban garden planner, and I've been connected with many community gardens in my neighborhood. I wanted to create a project that would integrate more technology in garden spaces. A lot of the language in tech is very connected to gardening. Coding and the algorithm is patterns, and the first thing you notice in gardening is patterns. I wanted to connect this concept, so I collaborated with different tech experts on a series of free public workshops called “Garden, Robots, and Third Spaces.”
My first workshop was on the knowledge of cacao with Andrea, who studies the history of 16th century indigenous women from Mexico. That was a beautiful way to start in my Mexican culture. The tools that they used to make the cacao was technology. She was able to ground us and say, “Tech had really humble origins.” In the second workshop I collaborated with Kete, who wants people to have a basic understanding of solar energy so that they can power their communities. The third workshop was when we got into ethical hacking. If someone's gonna attack you, then you can at least catch it because you understand what it means to hack back. This one was hyper-focused on protecting family, your elders, as well as people who are incarcerated. The last workshop was similar to how I started the first workshop with ancestral wisdom and knowledge. Instead of going back into my own personal roots, I set out with my friend who is Senegalese. She showed us how to decolonize the mind through the Wolof language. We listened to a lot of music, and she gave us specific writing prompts about how we can connect and relate to music. Even though the music wasn't in the language that the participants understood, they could feel the emotions through the sound and vibrations.
When I think about what it means to be American, it's like we're kind of in a place of loss. What if we go way back, just go back deep into our ancestral knowledge, which is our connection to the earth.
My first workshop was on the knowledge of cacao with Andrea, who studies the history of 16th century indigenous women from Mexico. That was a beautiful way to start in my Mexican culture. The tools that they used to make the cacao was technology. She was able to ground us and say, “Tech had really humble origins.” In the second workshop I collaborated with Kete, who wants people to have a basic understanding of solar energy so that they can power their communities. The third workshop was when we got into ethical hacking. If someone's gonna attack you, then you can at least catch it because you understand what it means to hack back. This one was hyper-focused on protecting family, your elders, as well as people who are incarcerated. The last workshop was similar to how I started the first workshop with ancestral wisdom and knowledge. Instead of going back into my own personal roots, I set out with my friend who is Senegalese. She showed us how to decolonize the mind through the Wolof language. We listened to a lot of music, and she gave us specific writing prompts about how we can connect and relate to music. Even though the music wasn't in the language that the participants understood, they could feel the emotions through the sound and vibrations.
When I think about what it means to be American, it's like we're kind of in a place of loss. What if we go way back, just go back deep into our ancestral knowledge, which is our connection to the earth.
