Revere XR x Seattle U Immersive Storytelling Hackathon celebrates Black History Month and legends of Seattle's historic Central District

This past weekend (Feb 21-23, 2025) the second annual Revere XR hackathon brought together students, games and tech industry luminaries, educators, and Seattle Central District business and community leaders to preserve the important history of the Central District with modern immersive technology. This event is the brainchild of Yolanda A. Barton and is a product of her post-graduate studies at the University of Washington. She has worked hard to redefine what a hackathon is and can be after some experiences at tech-focused hackathons left her feeling like she didn't fit in or belong in those environments. Everyone involved came away impacted by her work, her energy, and spirit of inclusion.

Seattle Indies and WILA were proud to sponsor and support the event that kicked off Friday evening at the Seattle University Student Center with a powerful panel featuring eight amazing business and community leaders from Seattle's historic Central District. Delbert Richardson , Lewis Rudd , KeAnna Rose, Melvin Freeman (aka The Fly Blind Guy), Isaiah Anderson, Stephanie Johnson-Toliver , Elmer Dixon , and Jazmyn Scott recounted emotional stories from their formative years in the Central District that molded them into the leaders they became.

Close to 40 students ranging from high school freshmen to post-grad, local games and tech industry all-stars, immersive technology enthusiasts, and community storytellers, formed 6 teams that were then tasked with interviewing one or two of the CD legends who graced us with their time and formulating ideas that would become the basis of their hackathon projects. Each legend generously gave their time to the teams, many spending hours, some staying until we closed for the evening answering questions and helping in the brainstorming process on ideas to preserve their legacy and history using immersive technology like AR and VR.

The teams returned early on a rainy Saturday morning full of ideas and energy. They were treated to sessions about prototyping in VR by Robert Rood and design theory by Julia C. Beabout, P.E. (贝朱琳） . These highly informative sessions combined with the creative sparks from the previous night's kick-off event and an impressive roster of mentors got the day off to a great start and helped the teams take their ideas from conversations to creations.

The teams worked late into the night on Saturday, fueled by delicious food generously provided by our partners at the Seattle U Project Center who worked tirelessly behind the scenes for months leading up to the hackathon and throughout the weekend to make sure it was a seamless, safe, and amazing experience for all of our participants. Seattle U welcomed us with open arms and went out of their way to ensure we had a comfortable setting for what can be a physically and emotionally exhausting experience and turned it into an environment that enabled an uplifting and unforgettable experience for all. They even surprised us with a visit from some cuddly corgis to give everyone a mental break and an overload of cuteness as projects were put aside for a few moments to pet the perky pups.

The teams and mentors returned Sunday morning determined to make the 4pm submission deadline and energized to finish their projects to honor the legends they were assigned to preserve, many of whom were scheduled to return for final presentations and judging at the end of the day. It was a flurry of activity for the next six hours as everyone raced to fix bugs and put last minute polish on their projects. Mentors stayed throughout the entire weekend, helping teams with technical questions and issues, many of whom were working with AR, VR, and game engine technologies for the first time.

All six teams finished their projects and submitted by the 4pm deadline and their was an audible sigh of relief and a wave of excitement and anxiety took over as teams prepared for their presentations and piled their plates with heaping helpings of Ezell's famous chicken, which has become the traditional celebratory dinner to close out the Revere XR hackathons. The day was punctuated with a visit by Rudy the Redhawk, Seattle U's mascot, who posed for pictures with our teams and lent some invaluable insight.

The judges filed in to review the prototypes and pitches created over the previous 48 hours and our participants prepared for their presentations with the proceedings hosted by MC René Peters Jr. . Each team was given10 minutes to present their work and field questions from the judges and over the course of the next hour we witnessed slide decks, videos of prototypes, and even a live demo of a VR prototype all focused on preserving the legacy and history of Seattle's Central District and the legends who provided us with their time and stories. We saw VR games, VR art galleries, AR experiences, and more. There was laughter, cheers, and tears as each team presented the work they had so lovingly invested their time into.

Following presentations the judges went off to a private room to deliberate and determine winners and each team was brought back up to offer some quick reflections on their experience at the hackathon. The emotions and energy came flowing out of people, many of whom had never participated in a hackathon before or had access to the technologies available to them at the event and their enthusiasm and appreciation for the ability to participate in the hackathon was overwhelming at times. The legends were given the chance to comment on the projects that preserved their history and each one was thrilled with what they had witnessed and the possibilities of helping new generations learn about the work they had done fighting for justice and equality when they were the same age as the participants are today.

Like many of the hackers the legends also hadn't been exposed to immersive technology and were beyond impressed at what our teams were able to accomplish with it in a weekend and intrigued by the possibilities of interactive storytelling as a means to preserve history. One of the participants even commented that during the course of the hackathon she learned that all throughout her time in school she thought she hated studying history but realized that she just didn't connect with the traditional approach of learning from textbooks and online resources but actually loved learning about history from listening to the stories of the people who lived it and getting a chance to dive deeper into their background and bringing that history forward into the future with modern immersive technology.

The judges returned with their decisions, the top three teams were selected and prizes were awarded. Our winning team was a group of four young women from the University of Washington called All Power to the People (pictured above). They made a VR experience to preserve the legacy of Elmer Dixon and his work as a co-founder of the Seattle Chapter of The Black Panther Party. None of them had ever worked with Unity or VR before and they were able to get a prototype working and gave a live demo on a Meta Quest 3 headset during their presentation. The tech was only part of what secured them the victory, their passion for the subject and the story really brought Elmer's legacy to life in a way that stood out and resonated with everyone in the room. Second place went to the Dream Team, composed mostly of Seattle U students who also had very little experience with immersive technology and gave a passionate presentation inspired by three of the legends Elmer Dixon, Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, and Isaiah Anderson. Third place went to the Legacy Bearers who built an AR experience centered around a mobile museum maintained by the legendary Delbert Richardson and his work.

Everyone who participated walked away with a t-shirt, a small cash award, new skills and friendships, and memories of an experience that will last a lifetime. Unlike most hackathons/game jams we run where the participants are so wiped out at the end they can't wait to get home and sleep this one ended with everyone full of energy and wanting to keep the conversations going long into the night.

We thank everyone who helped make this possible including the team at Revere XR, Seattle U, our mentors, volunteers, and hackathon participants and look forward to the next one and we hope to see you there!