Events

Archiving the Black Web is hosting a series of conversations to grow awareness about the human costs of AI innovation and to create a space where people in the cultural memory professions can engage in critical and caring discussions about the broader impact of AI technology. The series will feature workers rights activists, community organizers, AI data workers, scholars, and cultural memory practitioners. As the unrestrained development and adoption of artificial intelligence continues to impact all sectors of society, it is important for cultural memory workers to acknowledge the potential impact to our work but to also engage this new reality in critical ways that demonstrate our capacity to care for and advocate on behalf of vulnerable people. We must intentionally demonstrate our awareness of the labor exploitation, environmental harm, and other human costs underpinning AI innovation. And if cultural memory workers plan to bring AI technology into our work, we should be open to discussing how we might resist the technocapitalist agenda for AI use and be prepared to offer alternative models that are ethical, will not lead to the displacement of workers, and that will respect the rights of communities to own their cultural production. 

Register for the webinars below:

 

Series Moderator:

Meredith D. Clark, Ph.D. (she/her), is a recovering journalist and an associate professor of race and political communication in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Her book, “We Tried to Tell Y’all: Black Twitter and the Rise of Digital Counternarratives,” was released in 2025. She is a two-time graduate of Florida A&M University (B.A., political science, 2002; M.S., newspaper journalism, 2006) and earned her Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. Her work has been published in prominent journals such as Social Media & Society, New Media & Society, and the International Journal of Press and Politics. She has also received research grants from organizations including the Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Clark’s award-winning dissertation on Black Twitter landed her on The Root 100, the news website’s list of the most influential African Americans in the country, in 2015.

Date/Time: Friday, April 24th, 11am-12:30pm EDT

Zoom Registration Link

Panelists: Joan Kinyua, Founding President of the Data Labelers Association & Ephantus Kanyugi, Data Worker and Programs Lead at the Data Labelers Association

Moderator: Dr. Meredith D. Clark

Joan Kinyua is a digital labor organizer, AI justice advocate, and founding President of the Data Labelers Association (DLA). A former data labeler with nearly a decade of experience across the AI supply chain, from chat moderation and dataset annotation to complex 3D and pixel-level labeling, she brings lived insight into the invisible human labor powering artificial intelligence. Having experienced precarious contracts, opaque performance systems, and the psychological toll of digital piecework, Joan now organizes workers, engages policymakers, and collaborates with researchers to advance ethical AI rooted in labor rights, transparency, and dignity. Through the DLA, she has championed worker-led initiatives such as a Model Contract and a Voluntary Code of Conduct to protect AI data workers.

Ephantus Kanyugi is a data worker and Programs Lead at the Data Labelers Association. Since 2018, he has worked inside the hidden human labor that teaches machines how to see, interpret, and decide, translating complex realities into structured data that powers artificial intelligence systems worldwide. His work grows from that lived experience, shaped by the discipline, emotional weight, and quiet expertise of data workers. Today, he focuses on creating space for visibility, dignity, and historical recognition for African workers whose contributions sustain the digital age yet often go unacknowledged.

Date/Time: Friday, May 15th, 12pm-1:30pm EST

Zoom Registration Link

Panelist: Adrienne Williams, Community Centered Researcher, Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)

Moderator: Dr. Meredith D. Clark

Adrienne started organizing in 2018 while working as a junior high teacher for a tech owned charter school. She expanded her organizing in 2020 after her work as an Amazon delivery driver allowed her to see that many of the same issues she saw in charter schools were also at Amazon. Since then she has worked both on the ground and behind the scenes with activists, politicians, researchers, and everyday people to enact positive change in the tech, labor, and education industries by educating the public on how these industries harm, and how that harm can be reversed. She hopes her unique experience working within and organizing against these industries helps promote a more equitable society. Adrienne is a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Research Fellow at both (DAIR) and Just Tech.

Date/Time: Friday, June 19th, 10am-11:30am EST

Zoom Registration Link

Panelist: Adio-Adet Dineka, Political Scientist

Moderator: Dr. Meredith D. Clark

Adio is a political scientist specializing in platform labour and platform governance. He received his PhD from the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) in Germany, focusing on critiquing techno-optimistic narratives of platform labour in Sub-Saharan Africa. At DAIR, Adio’s research examines the often invisibilized labour behind AI system development, emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in AI creation. His work combines academic rigor with insights from fieldwork across multiple African countries. Through his research, Adio aims to highlight the overlooked human contributions to AI and advocate for fair practices and ethical standards in the digital economy. His broader interests include platform regulation, workers’ rights in the tech industry, and promoting responsible AI development that considers its socio-economic impacts in the Global South.

Date/Time: Wednesday, July 1st at 1 pm EDT

Zoom Registration Link

Panelists: KeShaun Pearson and KD Minor

Moderator: Dr. Meredith D. Clark

Join moderator Dr. Meredith D. Clark alongside panelists KeShaun Pearson and KD Minor as they discuss their organizing efforts in Tennessee, Louisiana, and other southern states. KD and KeShaun will discuss their work advocating on behalf of local communities against the environmental pollution, utility disruptions, and other health risks caused by the building and maintenance of infrastructure powering AI innovation. Their stories will highlight the real human costs of data center development being suffered by our neighbors and they will also share what they believe are effective political and community solutions that can address these issues.

KeShaun Pearson is the first-born son of teenage parents. His mother, Kimberly Owens-Pearson, is a Doctorate of Education candidate. His father, Jason C. Pearson Sr., is the Pastor of Community of Faith Christian Church and Chaplain at a prominent hospital in Memphis. In 2022, Pearson served as the Project Director for the Poor People’s Campaign Moral Mass Assembly and March on Washington, which assembled more than 25,000 advocates for equity and social justice. His environmental justice journey began with the Byhalia Connection Pipeline fight, during which he helped lead the charge against two multi-billion dollar oil companies that planned to build a pipeline through predominantly Black communities in South Memphis. He continues that fight now as the Executive Director of Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP). In this role, Pearson is leading MCAP’s movement to eliminate air pollution and enforce a new EPA rule to reduce ethylene oxide emissions linked to increased cancer rates in South Memphis. Pearson is a graduate of Old Dominion University, where he obtained two degrees, one Bachelor of Arts degree in Information Technology and another Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. He also earned a project management certificate from the University of Virginia.

Believing in responding to social shifts by acting in creative ways that generate new solutions, Kadesha “KD” Minor, practices innovation to her core. After feeling stifled by unprogressive policies and industries, the Southwest Louisiana native made an impromptu move to New Orleans, where she worked her way from the front desk of a small boutique hotel to becoming an area 5-diamond hotel’s first Content Marketing Manager, all while grassroots organizing and attending classes at Tulane after hours. A former Americorps Public Ally, KD has a wide range of experiences that have shaped her fluid worldview. From reconnecting opportunity youth to education and employment to managing the buildout of many movement-based organizations’ websites and databases, she is guided by the hopes and courage of those who have fought before and beside us. A mutual aid organizer, KD has worked in solidarity with her impacted hometown to crowdfund and disburse over $100,000 cash and resources to people impacted by Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Ida. When not serving as the Community Solutions Manager for The Alliance, KD finds herself mothering one little person, gardening, and wikipedia research tangents.is a data worker and Programs Lead at the Data Labelers Association. Since 2018, he has worked inside the hidden human labor that teaches machines how to see, interpret, and decide, translating complex realities into structured data that powers artificial intelligence systems worldwide. His work grows from that lived experience, shaped by the discipline, emotional weight, and quiet expertise of data workers. Today, he focuses on creating space for visibility, dignity, and historical recognition for African workers whose contributions sustain the digital age yet often go unacknowledged.

Images of Blackness on the Web: Representation and Reclamation in Digital Culture

Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 2:00-3:30 pm EDT
Register here.

Digital Archives Ecosystems

Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 2:00-3:30 pm EDT
Register here.

Archive Careers & Opportunities for Growth

Wednesday, May 6, 2026, 2:00-3:30 pm EDT
Register here.

 

 

 

 

The Freedom School 2026 Series: Digital Literacy & Cultural Stewardship is dedicated to strengthening digital literacy, advancing archival practices, and safeguarding the web as a vital site of cultural memory. As our histories, identities, and movements increasingly live online, this series convenes scholars, information professionals, technologists, and community members to critically examine how we engage with, interpret, document, and preserve digital culture.

Across several dynamic sessions, participants will explore visual analysis, representation, and power in digital spaces, preservation frameworks, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, and the evolving practices shaping web archiving and digital stewardship.

This series frames cultural stewardship as more than digital access or curation—it is an intentional practice grounded in critical analysis, ethical responsibility, technological fluency, and long-term preservation. Whether you are a creative, student, educator, memory worker, or technologist, the Freedom School 2026 Series offers practical tools and accessible frameworks to help you critically analyze, preserve, and responsibly shape our digital present for future generations.

 

Preserving & Web Archiving Digital Collections

Date: August 18, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

How to Build Web Archive Collections

Date: September 9, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

Digital Storage, Backups & Repositories

Date: October 8, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

 

 

Web Archiving Tools

Date: July 16, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

Archiving Your Website

Date: July 21, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

Archiving Social Media

Date: August 6, 2025 at 2:00pm EDT
Register here.

A Black History of the Web and Archiving Our Existence

Panelists will discuss how Black people have contributed to the development of the Internet, including contributions to the Internet economy, the social and cultural fabric of the web, and technology innovations. From contributing the nascent internet to Black blogging and the development of Black social media platforms, innovations from Black sex workers, online organizing around police brutality and other justice-related issues, and the dominance of Black cultural expression on the web, the contributions from Black people to the development of the Internet and online culture is undeniable. Our distinguished panelists will share their knowledge as scholars, activists, and memory workers in a conversation that will help to ground us in the Black history of the web as we explore the possibilities for archiving these current and future histories. Panelists will also offer their thoughts on the possibilities and the challenges for archiving Black people’s online experiences.

Online
April 30, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Register here.

Towards Realizing Safety for Black People on the Web

Archiving the Black Web presents a keynote conversation on the experience of Black people using social media platforms. Can decentralization and care-centered moderation that is customized to address the unique issues Black people face online offer enough protections? What is safety online anyway? And what are the limitations and possibilities of our efforts to protect ourselves in an increasingly toxic social media environment where the ability to control what content we see is replaced by algorithms designed to monetize our attention? This keynote conversation will explore how Black people navigate the changing social media landscape, new trends and practices for building a safer online experience, and what the future could look like for the Black experience on social media platforms. 

Auburn Avenue Research Library
April 30, 2024 6–9 PM EDT

Register here.