Pharrell is back with his latest competition to help teach the next generation of coders. Earlier this year, AfroTech reported that the legendary producer and his education equity nonprofit YELLOW partnered with Amazon and Georgia Institute of Technology for “Your Voice is Power” — an educational coding program for K-12 students. Now, Amazon, Pharrell and Georgia Tech have launched the “Your Voice is Power” 2022 music remix competition, according to an Amazon blog post. Coming in on its second year, the competition is continuing to teach underserved youth about coding and racial equity. “Working with Amazon Future Engineer and Earsketch for ‘Your Voice Is Power’ 2022 helps us to continue to EVEN THE ODDS within education, especially when it comes to racial equity,” said Pharrell. “It’s amazing to see the students completely immerse themselves in the curriculum, and to watch their coding sequences come to life. The cross-collaboration that happens when students share ideas and...

Earlier this year, Pharrell Williams’ nonprofit YELLOW joined forces with Amazon Music and Georgia Institute of Technology to launch a new educational coding and music remix competition. After months of listening to over 1,500 student applicants across the U.S., five winners have been chosen. According to a blog post from Amazon, the “Your Voice is Power” program was created to encourage students to use their voices through music to amplify issues centered around social justice and equity while also learning how to code. The music competition instructed students to create their own remix to Pharrell and Jay-Z’s “Entrepreneur” song using music coding platform EarSketch. As a result of the contest, five grand prize winners from schools in Georgia, Illinois, Florida, Texas, California, and Ontario were awarded either a $5,000 scholarship or grant to start their own business. Five teachers were also awarded a $1,000 cash reward for going above and beyond in teaching the program to their...