*Become a patron and support my blog and other writing endeavors on Patreon!
*Update: This Thursday is the opening reception for I Am Here: Blacking the Internet at Superchief Gallery in NYC featuring the work of Azikiwe Mohammad, Terrell Davis, Nandi Loaf, Devin Kenny & Palmtrees Caprisun Citrusblast and Juliana Huxtable. The run of the show is from tommorrow, July 1st to July 14th.
*The documentary Brandon Easton’s Brave New Souls: Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers of the 21ST Century documentary will be on DVD on July 15th and and currently available for download via Paypal by sending $7.99 to ShadowLawComic@gmail.com.
*Nettrice Gaskin’s “Black Futurism: The Creative Destruction and Reconstruction of Race in Contemporary Art:” “Contemporary black artists often refute conventional notions or images of blackness and replace them with altered realities. Their works exist in the social imaginary between the symbolic and the real—avatars with alternate, hybrid, or cyborg identities, surrounded by worlds that stimulate the viewer’s awareness of the future.”
*”Girls of Afrofuturism: The future is in our past” on Vanguard.
*”Janelle Monáe Is The Most Defiant Artist Of Her Generation” on HuffPost: “It’s a little more confusing when it comes to sci-fi understandings of her past (wait, is she literally an android?), but when we talk about identifying sexual preference or identity there is a certain power to Monáe’s refusal to participate in the media cycle associated with her rising level of fame. Why should we be privy to that personal information or have access to yet another means of classifying her? “The lesbian community has tried to claim me,” she told Rolling Stone, when asked yet again about how she identifies. “But I only date androids. Nothing like an android — they don’t cheat on you.”
*Rejected Princesses Tumblr. Imagine if Disney was bold enough to make films about these women.
*K. Tempest Bradford’s “Women Are Destroying Science Fiction! (That’s OK; They Created It)“ on NPR: “So are women destroying science fiction? Yes. Women created it, so it’s only fair. (Most would cite Frankenstein author Mary Shelley here, but others point out that preceded her.) In destroying it, women are creating a larger space for themselves within science fiction; one filled with their voices, dreams, experiences and realities.”
*Octavia Butler-related articles and posts in honor of her birthday last week:
–Adrienne Maree Brown of Octavia’s Brood published Reflections on Octavia Butler’s Earthseed on Scribd: “A book to use for reflection and meditation towards deepening practice with Octavia Butler’s Earthseed philosophy (from the Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents). Gathered by adrienne maree brown, including Alexis Pauline Gumbs, dream hampton, Moya Bailey, Autumn Brown, Ayana Jamieson, Bilen Berhanu, Adela Nieves, Lynnee Denise, Tanuja Jagernauth, Alta Starr, Peter Hardie and more…”
-Brown’s article in Yes Magazine’s “Change Is Divine: How Sci Fi Visionary Octavia Butler Influenced This Detroit Revolutionary:” “The ideas in Butler’s fiction challenge us to contend with our own choices and take responsibility for our own power.”
– “16 Things You Didn’t Know About Octavia Butler” on Buzzfeed.
–Finding Estella⇢ an Octavia Butler research pocket
-“Octavia Butler Fans Psyched Over 2 New Science Fiction Tales” on The Root.
-““There’s Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns”: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables by Gerry Canavan” on LA Review: “What Butler had ultimately hoped to do was write four Parables sequels: Parable of the Trickster, Parable of the Teacher, Parable of Chaos, and Parable of Clay. The titles suggest a shift from a Christian idiom (Sower, Talents, and Trickster all reference Biblical parables) to an Earthseed one (Teacher, Chaos, and Clay seem likely to be parables drawn from Olamina’s life, not Christ’s).”
*“Octavia Butlers fictional religion of ‘Earthseed’ inspires real religious movement“ on IEET: ” The Terasem religion.
*Crossed Genres is accepting Submissions for next themes – “School” and “Destruction.”
*“The Drawing Center presents The Institutionists featuring works and ephemera by over sixty artists who are members of the Drawing Center’s Viewing Program,” inspired by Colson Whitehead’s novel The Intuitionist and will be on view from July 11, 2014 to August 14, 2014.
*The Guardian’s “Sun Ra: Jazz’s Interstellar Voyager:” “Beyond the showbiz, there was a serious and studied message. His self-declaration as an angel was profound. He didn’t want to be associated with what he saw as a failed species. He was a conscientious objector to the end; he wanted no part in “being human”. As anyone who was lucky enough to meet him will tell you, Sun Ra really was like no other human. He was a musical genius, a music-business pioneer, a moral philosopher. Both out to lunch and ahead of his time, he was a brother from another planet.”
*Fundraiser campaign for Anisia Uzeyman’s Dreamstates.
“Dreamstates is the first feature film to emerge from America’s innovative underground Afro-Punk scene. Equal parts love story, road movie, and Americana, it tells the haunting tale of two wayward souls (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman) discovering their love for one another in their dreams and reality while touring the United States with some of the most pivotal figures of the Afro-Punk movement.”
http://vimeo.com/97691774%20w=680&h=400
*Maya Glick’s Kickstarter Campaign for her film, RAIN: a fanfilm about Storm.
*Business Insider’s “Google Is Offering Free Coding Lessons To Women And Minorities.”
*”Lina Viktor: Who Spins Art of Gold” on The Root: “I’m very much interested in very large concepts of the universe, mathematics, division, geometry, mythology and art history,” says Viktor. In fact, there is quite a bit of math involved. Victor says that each of the 10 paintings in her show uses a third more gold than the previous one, until the last in the series is completely full of the precious metal. She incorporates a modern form of water gilding to transfer the gold to her canvas.”
Her work is at Gallery 151 in New York until July 10th.
*Detroit Sci-Fi Generator Writing Salons hosted by Adrienne Maree Brown.
*”Sci-fi meets memoir in challenging new play” on ABC: “A memoir describing life as a young, gay, African-American science fiction writer growing up in New York forms the heart of a new play premiering at Wodonga’s HotHouse Theatre.” About Samule R. Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water.
*”Was the Cat in the Hat Black?” on Nine Kinds of Pie: I have heard this about Mickey Mouse, too.
*“How Do the Right Thing Predicted the Future.” on The Root.
Sherese Francis: Futuristically Ancient 