beyond the Machine 1: decolonising tech
Join us for the first beyond the Machine conversation, where we'll be joined by Siana Bangura, and Salmana Ahmed.
We'll be discussing:
What is Tech Justice, and where does it sit within our broader movements for collective liberation?
What does it mean to 'decolonise digital'?
How are Black women and marginalised people leading this work in the UK and globally?
What resources are needed to sustain these movements, and why does this matter?
About the speakers
Siana Bangura is a multi-award-winning writer, playwright, producer, filmmaker, curator and community organiser hailing from South East London, currently living and working between London and the West Midlands.
Her creative practice spans literature, theatre, film and live events, rooted in care, political urgency, community archiving and collective storytelling.
Siana is the founder and former editor of the Black British Feminist platform, No Fly on the WALL; she is the author of the critically acclaimed debut collection, ‘Elephant’, a book of poetry meditating on Black British womanhood and life growing up in London; the producer of ‘1500 & Counting’, a documentary film investigating deaths in custody and police brutality in the UK; the founder of Courageous Films, a social-justice focused documentary production house; and Producer at Siana Bangura Productions, a creative studio focusing on curating work, events and multi-layered experiences across the arts with care and intention.
A multi-disciplinary leader, with experience in indie publishing, journalism, comms and campaigns under her belt, Siana works, researches and campaigns on issues of race, class, and gender and their intersections, and is currently working on projects focusing on climate justice, the arms trade, Tech Justice, and state violence.
With a special interest in group dynamics in non-traditional structures, non-hierarchies, and decentralised networks, Siana was a campaigner at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), and is currently a member of the Transformational Governance Stewarding Group, facilitating experiments in meaningfully and intentionally transitioning from traditional to liberatory and life-affirming ways of working. She is also formerly a producer at Catalyst, where she co-created networks & ecosystems and catalysed their work on Tech Justice. She continues to network weave as a freelancer out in the field, taking a root-causes systems change approach to all her work, and being firmly grounded in Black Feminist Praxis.
Across her vast portfolio of work, Siana’s mission is to help move voices and experiences traditionally marginalised, from the margins, to the centre.
Salmana Ahmed is Co-director of Weaving Liberation, an initiative supporting and resourcing digital justice organising in Europe. She is a resource justice advocate with a background in funding globally at the intersection of technology and justice.
About beyond the Machine
beyond the Machine is a series of 8 lunchtime conversations discussing Tech Justice in our movements for collective Liberation. Each conversation features 2 incredible organisers who are deeply embedded in UK and global movements for social justice.