The Black Feminist World Database is a publishing project from Seeda Press which takes it's name from the computer science concept, "database seeding". Learn Entity Framework Core defines seed data as, "data that you populate the database with at the time it is created. You use seeding to provide initial values for lookup lists, for demo purposes, proof of concepts etc." This project explores the ways in which Black feminist worldbuilding and care work has provided the initial values for liberation. Meditating on our data warming issue and the Black design vernacular of reappropriation, the Black Feminist World Database (BFWD) gathers data from journalism, pop culture, and scholarly sources regarding Black feminist world building labor throughout the 1700s to 2000s. BFWD is a website where you are able to publicly access the seed data used for the Daily Seed zine and generate your own narratives using different shuffling algorithms of your choosing. While exploring the history of this work, one can generate their own non-linear narrative from the seed data to play with language, inspire alternative forms, and imagine new worlds. Supporting multiple functions this project can be used for learning, meditations, and ceremonies of reverence and remembrance.
This learning library is stocked with Black feminist seed data foraged by Ayana Zaire Cotton, artist, writer, and software engineer from Prince George's County, MD.
- View all entries in the database on page load
- Search all entries in the database using the search input
- Click the "zoom" button to the right in each card footer to view complete seed data on each Black feminist
- Click the "plus" button in each card footer to add the entry to your "basket"
- The entries in your "basket" will appear at the footer of the webpage
- Once satisfied with your "basket" you can choose a shuffling or sorting algorithm to generate a non-linear narrative from the entries in your basket
- In the header you can click on "Info" to read more about the project or click "Contribute" to contribute seed data to the database
In future versions of this project I am contemplating:
- Creating detailed and accessible contribution guidelines for creating a pull request to add directly to the database.
- Creating a separate REST API so other developers may leverage the data for teaching purposes.