The My-Stery: Enter the Dragon Ladies

A few weeks ago, I read an article about the oldest known spiritual ritual in the world — a 70,000 year old python ritual of the San people in Botswana. In another article, the author discusses the history of snake or serpent worship. In many religions, mythologies and rituals all over the world, serpents (snakes, […]

The My-Stery: Now Put Some Vodou On It

As I study more about myth and religion, I am starting to understand the art of different artists more. For example, Janelle Monae. The first time I heard Monae was in her video for “Many Moons.” Actually, the first time I saw her was in Big Boi’s “Morris Brown,” but I didn’t know it was […]

The My-Stery: The Web

During the past several years, quite a number of books and essays have come out about connections between African diasporic cultures, and computer and digital technology. For example, Ron Eglash wrote “African Fractals,” a book on the similarities between African fractal designs in such things as textiles and braids, and modern computer designs. Since he […]

The My-Stery: Wiccan and Voodoo?

While looking for the System of a Down’s “Chop Suey” video, I saw the video for Godsmack’s “Voodoo.” The song was supposedly influenced by Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, a movie that is problematic in of itself, portraying Vodou and indigenous religion in a kind of simplistic view, using them once again as […]

The My-Stery: Images of Mami Wata

The more I study mythology, religions and popular culture, the more I realize the mythological symbolism in a lot of popular culture. For example, in two of Aaliyah’s last videos, “We Need a Resolution” and “Rock the Boat.” The video for the first song contains scenes where she appears to be in a underground setting […]

The My-Stery: Futures of Color

Although the main focus of this blog is afrofuturism, all people of color are in the speculative realm as well: From Butcharri “Why POC need Science-Fiction and Fantasy… You know one thing that I’ve found in being a creative and a person of color is that attempting to get POC to collaborate on something that […]

The My-Stery: Mythologies in Popular Culture

Myth is all around us; it structures our societies, cultures and realities. Despite Nietzsche saying “God is dead,” the myths of various cultures still are embedded throughout our own cultures to this day. To understand most of the imagery and symbolism in our culture, we must study myths and stories. While doing research on various […]

The My-Stery: My Speculative Return Home…

For the first day of “Black History Month” (although Black history should be all day, everyday), I want to give a little background history of my return to speculative fiction. Looking back, I have always enjoyed speculative fiction, including science fiction, horror and fantasy. Growing up, I love fables, books and films about talking animals, […]

The My-Stery: He Is More Than a Dream: Martin Luther King Jr.

Jay Smooth‘s “Ten Other Things Martin Luther King Said” When most people think of Martin Luther King, Jr., they tend to think of only his “I Have a Dream Speech” and they usually only think of a small fraction of it. Often they will use the speech to make King seem less radical than he […]