Futures Collective

Meet Quardean

Focused on the issue of minority underrepresentation in design and tech fields and youth unemployment, Quardean Lewis-Allen founded the nonprofit youth creative agency Made in Brownsville (MiB) in 2013 to provide a gateway for young people in his native Brownsville community to learn marketable hard skills in STEAM, access postsecondary education, gain or create employment, and rebuild their community in a way that benefits residents. He teaches Architecture at CUNY City College and is a 2016 Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow. Prior to starting MiB, Quardean was the inaugural recipient of Community Solutions’ Greg “Jocko” Jackson Community Fellowship at the Brownsville Partnership. He has worked for the global architecture firm, Perkins Eastman. In 2011, he worked for the Chife Foundation to develop affordable housing typologies for an eco-sustainable new town in Anam, Nigeria with support from the Harvard Community Service Fellowship Grant. He studied social housing under Anne Lacaton in Paris and public art under Krzysztof Wodiczko. His work has been exhibited at Le Laboratoire in Paris, at the Afrika Museum in the Netherlands, and Harvard University. 

Quardean has been a guest critic and lecturer on social advocacy in design at Harvard, Parsons The New School, Queens College and Pratt Institute. He is an honoree on the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list and a 2013 40 under 40 creative urban leaders Next City’s Vanguard. MiB is a recipient of the 2016 MAKINGOODESIGN Award, a $100K Neighborhood Challenge Innovation Award from New York City Small Business Services and NYCEDC, and a 2016 Excellence Award from the Center for Active Design. In 2015 MiB was a finalist in the AIGA Sylvia Harris Citizen Design Award. They have been featured by NYTimes Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, JPMorgan Chase, and Al Jazeera.

What we discuss

- The role of design in youth empowerment

- Embracing your unique genius

- How young people can help transform communities for the better

Meet Tahir

Working across multiple mediums, materials, and photography, Brooklyn-based artist TahirKarmali’s interests lie in manipulating materials that perpetuate colonialism. He draws from his own experiences as a well-traveled Kenyan citizen to structure narratives around migratory identity. Karmali received his Masters of Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Selected exhibitions include “Jua Kali,” a part of “Making Africa,” High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2017), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands (2016), and Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain (2015), among other venues; “PAPER:Work,” Art Africa Fair, Cape Town, and Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, both 2017. 

What we discuss

- The role of art in addressing social issues

- The obstacles facing youth who want to pursue art and any 'unpredictable' careers

- How to balance finding economic, psychological and emotional fulfilment

Meet Whitney & Matt 

Monochrome Coffee Co. is a social enterprise coffee company, out to empower people to change the world now!

Led by Co-Directors, Whitney Stacey and Matt Teluk, Monochrome Coffee Co. exists to transform developing communities through the education and empowerment of youth.

Whitney grew up wanting to be an actor, but always knew she had a passion for positively impacting other people's lives. A volunteer trip to Tanzania at age 18 solidified her commitment to impacting East African communities through education.

Matt's pathway was very different. Matt went to university and became a lawyer. After accepting a highly-sought after graduate role at a multinational professional services firm in corporate tax law, Matt soon realised that education and social enterprise were his true calling.

Both currently work full-time jobs in addition to running Monochrome Coffee Co. and Monochrome International, a not-for-profit.

What we discuss

- Navigating careers

- The fear of failure

- The importance of social impact