ABSTRACT
This essay provides an example of the integration of STEM and the arts (STEAM) with the goal to create humanizing learning experiences for young people that work toward a more inclusive computational future. In thinking about computational literacy, it's important to remember that literacies, and the educational systems that support them, have historically been used as tools to maintain inequitable social, class, and economic power structures. We have been pilot-testing out-of-school youth programs in which teams of students work with coaches to develop art pieces consisting of computer code, music, video, poetry, and dance that they perform at Street Code festivals. The goal of the arts should not be to make STEM culturally relevant but rather to find ways to normalize coding within youth cultures as opposed to trying to force code to be culturally relevant by applying it to music. When we think about the integration of computational literacy with the performing arts, we hope to create spaces where new, alternative computing cultures, grounded in community, creativity, and culturally resonant expressions of identity can begin to flourish.
