The My-Stery: Revisiting The Mask as Technology

Several months ago, I wrote a post about the mask as technology, but after reading Louis Chude-Sokei’s essay about PT Barnum and Joice Heth, I want to think further about saying that the mask is technology, specifically in reference to German producer Frank Farian and the groups Boney M and Milli Vanilli. Most people know […]

Modern Griots: The Mighty Shadow’s Musical Jumbie

For an afrofuturist artist in jazz, you may think of Sun Ra, in funk, Parliament Funakdelic, and in reggae/dub, “Scratch” Lee Perry. But for calypso, it is probably singer The Mighty Shadow, or Shadow. Born Winston Anthony Bailey and originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Shadow is known for his 1974 mythic song “Bassman,” about a […]

Blogging While Brown Entry

Program interruption: This is my entry for Blogging While Brown scholarship. My blog, Futuristically Ancient, has been running for a little over two years. I started blogging a couple of years before that as another way to express myself, since I am not much of a talker. As for this blog, I started it after […]

Otherworldy Videos: Captain T and T

Captain T and T Written, directed and produced by married duo Christopher and Leizell Guiness, this short film is about a Trinidadian man who recalls his younger days as six-year-old “Thin Foot” when he experimented to find what kind of superhero powers he had. Learning through these trials gives him a chance to “become” who […]

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Anthony Joseph

“Aranguez” from The African Origins of UFOs While looking for Caribbean afrofuturists, I found this poet, novelist and musician, Anthony Joseph. Joseph, who has been featured in the anthology Dark Matter, is Trinidadian-British man and has written three books of poetry as well as an experimental novel, The African Origins of UFOs (click on link […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Old Money

Take some mysticism and some social realities mixed with some humor and Brooklyn-by way of the Caribbean-flava and you have Old Money‘s debut mixtape, Fire in the Dark. Their album released on Dutty Artz records, the group consists of Afro-Caribbean-American (Jamaica and Guyana) duo, Ahmad Julian and Andre Oswald. The mixtape uses references familiar afrofuturist themes, like […]

Otherworldly Videos: Louis Chude-Sokei Reading

Hello everyone, I’m back! With my return, I will be posting at a later time (8:00pm) and for the next couple of weeks, the blog will have a Caribbean afrofuturist focus, especially since I wrote a piece for Africa Is Done Suffering about a need to highlight more of Caribbean experience into diaspora (and in […]

Moving on the Wires: 2 Years+Break, RebelMatic, Deluge Trailer, Meridian, Tawiah, Tar Baby Jane

*Today is my the anniversary of the day I started this blog, which was two years ago, and I am going to take a small break (maybe a week or two) to celebrate. Running this blog by myself can be tiring sometimes and so I should do this so i don’t tire myself out. I […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Tongues of Fire and Erykah Badu

Sekou Sundiata – “Space” Last weekend, I attended the Tongues of Fire tribute to Sekou Sundiata at the Apollo and I must say it was a beautiful, stirring and electrifying tribute. Curated by musical director Craig Harris, the show included his band Nation of Imagination as the musical background as for a few moving musical […]

Black Girls/Black Women Are from the Future: Q.U.E.E.N., Black Girls Code and MBIB

Janelle Monae’s “Q.U.E.E.N.” featuring Erykah Badu. This song is a much better anthem than, dare I say, “Run the World (Girls).” It is funky and fierce with thoughtful commentary about those who judge and put others down. Check out Monae interview yesterday on 106 and Park. Black Girls Code Trailer — the short film about […]