• Article

    Black Tech Week celebrates innovators of color, highlights opportunities

    Published February 23, 2015 by

    Photo by Carolina Wilson. Felecia Hatcher is co-founder of Code Fever and an organizer of Black Tech Week, which Knight Foundation supports to build Miami’s community of innovators and entrepreneurs, while fostering talent and expanding economic opportunity.  Since announcing Black Tech Week I’ve fielded a lot of questions and the two that I’ve received over and over again are: “Why Black Tech Week?” and “Why Miami?” My answer is simple: “Why not!” When I sat down with members of our steering committee and Derick Pearson, co-founder of Code Fever, to discuss the momentum in Miami and all the various conversations about diversity and inclusion in the tech space, we realized that we’d all attended many such conferences around the world but the time was ripe for an event like this in Miami. It’s time for an event that provides a collision point between tech, innovation and culture with a real focus on Miami as a conduit to the Caribbean and African Diaspora.  
  • Article

    Discovering the sounds of Detroit

    Published February 23, 2015 by

    The Symphony in D project records sounds with the students of Detroit’s YouthVille. A new, collaborative symphony, led by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Tod Machover of the MIT Media Lab and funded by Knight, is taking shape in the Motor City. Below, Machover, who is gathering sounds from the people of Detroit to shape the piece, writes about his work. A version of this post was originally published at SymphonyinD.com. I recently returned from a trip to Detroit, my second in a month, and my third since we officially launched the Symphony in D project in late November. Besides exploring as many corners of the city as I can and sometimes soaking up impressions without any agenda—often the best way to find surprises—my goal right now is to meet people who would be interested in collaborating with me, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and my team at the MIT Media Lab to create this musical portrait of Detroit, past, present and future.
  • Article

    Global Impact Competition Miami seeks big ideas for addressing sea level rise in South Florida

    Published February 23, 2015 by

    This post was updated on April 21, 2015 to reflect that the compeition deadline was extended to April 24, 2015.  Regina Njima is manager of the Global Impact Competitions and admissions for the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University. Photo by Michael D. Bolden on Flickr. Attention Miami tech entrepreneurs: If you have an idea for addressing Miami’s global warming concerns -- the subject of recent conversation and debate -- here’s a competition you should enter. Knight Foundation and Singularity University have teamed up to launch Global Impact Competition-Miami and ask the question: “How would you solve South Florida’s sea level rise challenge and improve the lives of millions of people in three to five years by using technology?” The two winners with the best ideas will receive full tuition to Singularity University’s 10-week Graduate Studies Program in Silicon Valley.  The competition is open to all U.S. residents. Singularity University -- a unique educational organization headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, Calif. -- is dedicated to educating, inspiring, and empowering leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s greatest challenges, which Singularity University refers to as Global Grand Challenges: education, energy, environment, food, global health, poverty, security, space and water.
  • Article

    Opera beyond the Everglades

    Published February 23, 2015 by

    By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer In Naples, on the other side of Everglades National Park, a company located in and named after the city on Florida’s west coast, has been staging operas for a decade. The enterprise is modest but ambitious. It doesn’t need or hope...
  • Article

    Where woodland creatures come alive

    Published February 20, 2015 by

      One of Elliot Miller's creatures. There is a gem of an exhibit up in North Miami: a solo show populated by forest creatures, carved, chiseled and chainsawed out of wood. The artist is a native Miamian who passed away in 2003, though many locals may...
  • Article

    Chute Insights: Visual tools for the visual marketer

    Published February 19, 2015 by

    Gregarious Narain is the co-founder and CTO of Chute, which Knight Foundation supports through the Knight Enterprise Fund. Customers have made it clear that a world filled with immersive, rich images and media is the world they prefer. They have adopted a personal arsenal of hardware and services that put us squarely in the center of the visual revolution. Not to be left behind, marketers and publishers alike are doing their best to keep up with the future. The modern marketer is a visual marketer. Almost every venue we have to engage an audience demands a striking visual - either as the content itself or in support of the content. Visual marketers increasingly have to master a wide range of new skills to succeed, the least of which is the mastery of how to create and publish amazing visuals.
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    Sounds of Mozart, Strauss and Brahms at Belk Theater

    Published February 19, 2015 by

    The much beloved sounds of Mozart, Strauss and Brahms will fill Belk Theater this weekend as the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra performs a Classic Series concert conducted by Christopher Warren-Green. The program will include Mozart's "The Impresario Overture," Strauss' " Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" and Brahms' "Piano Concerto No. 2" featuring pianist...