S8E4: Ari Melenciano

Ari Melenciano is an artist, creative technologist, educator and the founder of Afrotectopia, a social institution fostering interdisciplinary innovation.

The idea for Afrotectopia came when Melenciano — who grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, which has an African American majority — was studying at NYU’s Interactive Technology Program. When she shared pictures of her projects on social media,

my friends from back home would be interested in the things I’m creating. But when I would talk with them, I could tell that this is not something that they imagine themselves doing. And so I wanted to make sure that anyone who looked like me could imagine themselves doing that.

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By Jessica Helfand & Ellen McGirt

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.

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Ellen McGirt is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, a media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with raceAhead, an award-winning newsletter on race, culture, and business. The Fortune, Time, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her twenty-year career, exploring the people and ideas changing business for good. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.