Moving on the Wires: Tim Fielder, Oya: Rise of the Orisha, Live Unchained…

*Tonight illustrator and animator Tim Fielder will be sharing his work Matty’s Rocket— an episodic-animated series & web comic. The event will have guest appearances and readings from writers Liza Jessie Peterson and Melanie Maria Goodreaux. They will read Afrofuturistic pieces aloud while Fielder will illustrate their work on the spot! *Accra Dot Alt will […]

Modern Griots Review: MUV’s “Sankofa”

If you can keep dancing especially when no one thought you would survive, then you have traveled to a region beyond death. Last weekend, Movement for the Urban Village‘s (MUV) Sankofa performance showed how our expressions (dance, music, words, names and silence) transcend boundaries and even death. As George Clinton says in “Mothership Connection,” “You […]

Otherworldly Videos: Yesterday’s Tomorrow

UK Writer Duane F.L. Wharton‘s short, time-bending film Yesterday’s Tomorrow starring Ewan David Alman, Mazie Rhodes and paralympian Gaz Choudhry. Wharton is currently working on a fantasy drama Walking with Azrael (2013), which is about angels. Part two below:

Modern Griots Review: The United States of Hoodoo

Darius James and Oliver Hardt’s film The United States of Hoodoo has a deceptive quietness with a hidden power underneath it. But then again, it is just another variation of the film’s themes of the trickster and the crossroads. Returning home to Connecticut, the film follows James’ coping with his father’s recent death and his […]

Moving on the Wires: Black Women From the Future, Griotworks, CCCADI, Jimi Hendrix, Erykh Badu…

*Kwan Booth, who edited Black Futurist Speaks, is hosting Black Women From the Future event in Oakland, California on Saturday in celebration of both Black History Month and Woman’s History Month in March. Today is Nina Simone’s birthday, so it’s perfect timing. For more information on the event and the artists featured, click here. * […]

Otherworldly Videos: And We Dance…

RAS (Riders Against the Storm) – Everybody Wannabe (with Ballet Afrique dancers) Watch the behind-the-scenes video.

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Audre Lorde’s “A Woman Speaks”

In honor of Audre Lorde’s birthday, which was yesterday, here is her poem, “A Woman Speaks.” I read comments about this poem and that it is about women in general, but I disagree. If it is read carefully, especially the last few lines, it is clear that it is about black women whose voices are […]

The My-Stery: Slaughterhouse Five, Dead Presidents, War and PTSD, Pyschotrauma of Carnage, and The Escapist Fantasy

After reading Kurt Vonnegut’s famous and controversial novel, Slaughterhouse Five, one of the other works that came to mind was Dead Presidents, starring Larenz Tate. Besides both works detailing veterans with PTSD, previously related to shell shock at that time, after witnessing the terror of war, they both tie together the psychotrauma of witnessing that […]

Moving on the Wires: The Liberator Magazine, El Anatsui, Anti-Robot Radio, Mother Tongue Monologues

*The Liberator Magazine released their latest issue, “The Last Generation of Black People.” My essay, “The Percussive Approach,” is one of the writings featured. Buy a copy here. *Accra dot Alt announced El Anatsui’s exhibition “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui” will be at Brooklyn Museum Also, go to Accra dot Alt for […]

THE NEXT BEST THING Blog Hop…Hoping to Be

The Next Big Thing Hop: the traveling blog that asks authors who they consider the NEXT BIG THING, and then has them pass along the questions for those authors to answer in their blogs. Thank you Valjeanne Jeffers for tagging me! Read hers here. Rules are: Answer ten questions about your current Work In Progress […]