Juneteenth Free Your Mind Symposium Day 1

The 2025 Free Your Mind Lecture Series kicks off on Tuesday, June 10 from 12-1:30pm with a film screening of Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom, an unscripted documentary that invites viewers into the story of Juneteenth through the eyes of a Black man learning about the holiday from the direct descendants of those liberated. A conversation and Q&A with Ya’ke Smith, documentary director and Associate Professor of Film at the University of Texas at Austin, will follow. Learn more about Ya’ke Smith’s work as a filmmaker, professor, and activist at exodusfilmworks.com.

The Free Your Mind Lecture Series continues at 6pm on Tuesday, June 10, with a lecture from Dr. Simone Browne, Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Browne will present her research on the social and ethical implications of heightened digital scrutiny, both with and without artificial intelligence. She will discuss how these practices are informed by historic methods of monitoring Black life under slavery and the ways artists intervene against them. With a focus on algorithmic harm and tech equity, Dr. Browne will guide the audience through community-based tactics for enhanced digital safety planning and data protection.

Game Designer and Small Black Museum Residency alum Temitope Olujobi returns to the Carver Museum to present their latest project, Hands That Steal From Other Mouths, on Tuesday, June 10 from 8-9pm. Combining a teach-in and live video game performance, Olujobi's work pursues a creative mission to unify Africans, on the continent and in the Black American diaspora, in learning about the collective exploitation and struggle for self-determination.

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