Despite its critics in its early days, Hip-hop as an artistic medium has spread to all corners of the Earth, but could it spread throughout the galaxy? What about world violence against young people? Chicago-author Shirley Hardy-Leonard explores these questions in her latest work, Odysella: Empress of Nar series. The series follows two main leads […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Odysella – Empress of NarSocial Death, Wounded Transformations and The Hauntings of Prophetic Tradition : Tomorrow is Christmas and one story that came to mind in relation to afrofuturism, and especially after I watched Arthur Jafa’s Dreams Are Colder than Death, was Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the story’s ghosts of past, present and future. In the Western […]
Read More The My-Stery: The Ghost of AfroFuture…Last week, I received some inspiration to write a new poem. I was watching an episode of Mysteries at the Museum and saw I segment on Henry “Box” Brown, the enslaved man who mailed himself to freedom. For some reason, the story stayed on my mind. The next morning when I watched a Doctor Who […]
Read More Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth: Poem in Process – “A Mad Man with a Box”Juice Aleem‘s “Anumals” From Juice Aleem’s press: “After the soaring heights of the MoorKaBa LightBikes… the journey is continued with AnuMal: the dominion of the Flesh. A dance between the sacred and the profane. Watch out for the AnuMals!” Keep in mind the woman with the wolf/fox mask at the end while watching the next […]
Read More Otherworldly Videos: Juice Aleem + Sharon Jones and the Dap KIngsImagine seeing the journey of the Black Atlantic through the memories of a centuries-old vampiric human. A DC IT specialist working at an HIV organization Justin Kena is privileged with this information when he falls for one named Dante. As he falls in love, he learns of the ancient indigenous Yoruba group, the Razadi, who […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Birth of a Dark NationI know I am a bit late on reviewing this one, but finally here is my review of it: Ytasha L. Womack’s Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-fi and Fantasy Culture is a well-thought out introductory book that is a smooth blend between a personal memoir and a reference source for those interested in delving […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Afrofuturism – The World of Black Sci-FI and Fantasy CultureWhile reading this morning Brainpicking’s, “The Science of Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect,” the article stood out to me because of its connection between sociality, survival and mindreading: “[Matthew D. Lieberman] argues that this osmosis of sociality and individuality is an essential aid in our evolutionary development rather than an aberrant defect in […]
Read More The My-Stery: The Social Brain, Psionic Ability and Shiftings of Mind, Body and SpaceLove and Death: Gira Dahnee – “Painted Waltz” Omega Sirius Moon – “OSM: DESTROY: The Trip to Shaman Rock”
Read More Otherworldly Videos: High Priestesses – Gira Dahnee + Omega Sirius MoonHere’s the third recap from The Shadows Took Shape exhibition. Today, I am sharing the notes and questions (some thoughts came after the club) from the book club for Octavia Butler’s Kindred with moderators Rasheedah Phillips of The Afrofuturist Affair and artist John Jennings. First, notes from Rasheedah’s presentation, Time, Memory and Agency *The mechanics […]
Read More Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: Notes from Kindred Book ClubAs Afrofuturism becomes more mainstream, sometimes popular conversations about it become also a bit stagnant, which is why I enjoy local conversations about it and hearing people’s personal relationships to it; I tend to learn a lot more. That’s what I got with this week’s panel discussion at the Studio Museum in Harlem with curators […]
Read More Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: The Shadows Took Shape Panel Recap
Sherese Francis 