High school student Siegfried Hinton Wright spent the better part of his summer working on H Street in Northeast. That’s where he channeled his youthful energy through meditation and learned how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create media.
Such experiences led to the creation of two paintings — “Beauty and Sadness” and “Soul of the District.” It also culminated in a business deal that he and his peers — Noel Thomas, Jayden Ukeneru Steve, and Elijah Jones-Hand — are solidifying with the Caribbean eatery Jerk at Nite.
As he prepares for his return to Roosevelt Senior High School in Northwest this fall, Siegfried said he’s more emboldened to represent and contribute to his hometown.
“We have our own spirit and [our] way of moving [is] very unique,” said Siegfried, a 16 year old who’s interested in entrepreneurship and biochemistry. “This city is one of a kind and can’t be replicated. It feels good being in D.C. This summer job gives me the chance to meet new people and bond with them while being paid. It’s a cool experience.”
Looking Back: Mindful AI Program Showcase
On July 31, Siegfried counted among dozens of young people who presented their AI-generated art at a showcase hosted by H Street Main Street, a nonprofit dedicated to retail opportunities, clean streets, safety and youth programming along the H Street corridor.
The showcase at 1207 H Street NE (the old AutoZone) marked the teens’ completion of H Street Main Street’s Summer Mindful AI Program, which students enrolled in through the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program. For weeks, program participants immersed themselves in a curriculum that merged ancient Kemetic principles, yoga, and meditation with the use of AI to solve problems in collaboration with local businesses and District agencies.
With the use of ChatGPT and MidJourney AI image generator, students created more than 200 works of art that will appear at two new D.C. Department of Human Services shelters. They learned how to use AI during sessions with Ademar do Nascimento, an architectural designer and AI consultant, and Sandy Bellamy, program manager of D.C. Department of General Services’ Percent for Art, which allocates 1% of funds for large-scale construction projects toward the commission of original art pieces.
Ngozi Burrell, a yoga instructor and mindfulness practitioner with a background in AI and virtual reality, exposed youth to Kemetic yoga and qigong, ancient Chinese exercises for optimization of mind, body and spiritual energy.
She told The Informer that the opening activities she conducted with students helped them analyze and control their relationship with technology.
Such lessons, she said, proved useful when it came time for students to learn about their authentic selves, pour their thoughts into the AI and produce original works of art.
“To operate in this society, you have to learn yourself and learn how to work with your own body,” said Burrell, a former MBSYEP H Street Main Street employee. “A lot of the young people are going through puberty so… they have to learn how to be mindful of how they speak and come across,” she continued.
Even as the youth employees worked with digital programming, Burrell noted the importance of mindfulness to keep the young people grounded.
“Technology is a huge distraction so they have to ground themselves and learn how it mirrors their personal vessels. If they learn autonomy, they can know about their environment and master themselves.”
Students Navigate the Politics of AI
In recent years, AI has emerged as a tool that students depend on to write essays and answer test questions — much to the chagrin of teachers who are concerned about deteriorating writing and critical thinking skills.
Last year, the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) and Office of the State Superintendent of Education set its sights on the standardization of AI in the classroom. The goal, as SBOE Representative Brandon Best explained, centered on providing District teachers a framework for integrating AI into their instruction and ensuring that students aren’t left behind as the rest of the world navigates the burgeoning, but controversial, technology.
As District schools continue to mull over AI’s future in the classroom, Kodi Jones, a H Street Main Street summer job participant, said that her experimentation with the technology in a workplace setting allowed her to appreciate its utility.
Kodi, a 15-year-old Banneker Academic High School student, used AI prompts to create a painting titled “Resilience” in which a woman is walking through a field with a flower in her hand and the U.S. Capitol in the background. She also developed a blog site about wellness that had an image of a woman looking at herself in the mirror.
“My art is about working through challenges and overcoming anything thrown at you,” Kodi said. “I was able to see that artificial intelligence isn’t harmful. It helped me generate this painting. It was easy because teens are always working [with] technology. There was more detailed instruction behind it, so you’re not taking ideas from other artists.”
Marc Long, a student who attends Digital Pioneers Academy Public Charter School in Southeast, created a video game titled “8-bit Racing Game” with the use of Claude.ai. He said the process took him three weeks with trial and error. Once completed, he added it to the catalog of video games he’s created since enrolling in Digital Pioneers Academy PCS.
“I want everyone to have fun and like the game,” said Marc, an aspiring entrepreneur. “The summer program was pretty smooth [because] it allowed me to do what I wanted with the game. The meditation calmed me down and got me ready to focus on work for the day.It takes multiple tries to perfect something [so] you can’t give up.”
Tae’lor Johnson, a student in the dance department at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest, said she used AI as an act of political resistance.
During her summer break from dancing, Tae’lor reflected on how she and other Black girls have to present themselves while on stage. Those thoughts, she said, inspired an up-close, black-and-white painting of a Black woman that she developed with AI prompts.
“Black women represent beauty,” Tae’lor said about her piece, titled “Strength and Stillness.”
“At my school, they really try to make our hair [into] slicked back buns, but Black girls need protective styles. There’s not a lot of representation,” Tae’lor continued. “I just learned that AI would help me. It’s replacing jobs but maybe we should work with it to get money.”
Looking at the Bigger Picture
As he watched the students stand by their art pieces, Anwar Saleem said they have the potential to walk in the footsteps of Burrell, NASCAR driver Rajah Caruth, WeBuyBlack founder Shareef Abdul-Malik and several others who went through his summer youth employment site over the last 15 years.
For Saleem, executive director of H Street Main Street, the students’ success this summer bodes well for H Street NE, a corridor that’s suffered from violent crime and hemorrhaging of viable businesses. With the H Street Festival fast approaching, Saleem counts among those working to foster sustainable neighborhood growth.
However, that goal can’t be met without the youth, he said.
“It’s been tough on H Street for years, so we have to include young people in what we do,” Saleem told The Informer. “They are the future business owners and employees. I want to show them what revitalization looks like and how to go into business for themselves.”