Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: The Shadows Took Shape Highlights

To the right is the exhibition book from Naima J. Keith and Zoe Whitley curated exhibition, The Shadows Took Shape. It is a nice-looking book with purple pages and reversed alphabetical order of artists, and it’s royally expensive, too ($50), but it looks worth it. Anyway, here are some of the artists and work that […]

What Is Afrofuturism? Part 17: Decentering Cultural Space in Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism as an aesthetic and critical lens is known for its analyses and strategies of decentering and revising norms and stereotypes about race, gender, sexuality and class, but as Afrofuturism is expanding, there are other areas, besides the ones mentioned before, to still be worked on like issues of globalism (“the neoliberal vision of homogenising […]

The My-Stery: Why STEM Fields Need an A(rt)…

A few days ago I witnessed a twitter battle between astrologist Sam F. Reynolds and Science Nerd/Blogger Rai Elise on November 5th (click on view conversation to read her tweets) over the legitimacy of astrology and the conversation highlighted some important and common conflicts between art fields and science/math/technology fields. Reynolds says some key things […]

Otherworldly Videos: Transmission Series

Ekari (Ashleigh Ekari) is developing a series called TRANSMISSION: Afrofuturism as an Archive as part of her senior capstone project for the class Re-Imagining the Archive. She describes it as “exploring the ways in which speculative fiction, namely Afrofuturism, functions as a ‘future archive,’” or in other words, “a collection of speculative future possibilities, a collection […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Yugen Blakrok’s “Return of the Astro-Goth”

In continuing with women this week who are taking hip-hop to higher spaces: Cosmic rap (or God Hop as some artists call it) is in South Africa by way of the Johannesburg independent label Iapetus Records (Saturn’s moon) and emcee, Yugen Blakrok. Influenced by other labels like Boogie Down Productions, The Bomb Squad and Ninja […]

Otherworldly Videos: Colored Girls Hustle’s “Afro Aliens” + Pink Oculus’ “Sweat”

Here are premieres of two videos from women taking female empowerment to higher levels: Colored Girls Hustle (Taja Lindley and Jessica Valoris) – “Afro Aliens” Donate to their Colored Girls Hustle Hard mixtape fundraiser!

Moving on the Wires: Colored Girls Hustle Hard Mixtape and Afro Aliens Video Premiere

After watching their Colored Girls Hustle videos, I wanted to give special highlight to these two women and artists, Taja Lindley and Jessica Valoris and their Colored Girls Hustle artistic creations, including jewelry, poetry and music. I am definitely attracted to their positive message and mission of self-affirmation and self-expression for women of color, whether […]

The My-Stery: Holidays, Celebrations and The Pleasure of Racist Masquerade

Anyone on social media has probably already come across the shitstorm of white people dressing in blackface/brownface costumes. The recent events have included dancer and actress Julianne Hough‘s Orange is the New Black costume, the 21-year-old Australian woman’s “African”-themed birthday party, the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman costumers, Italian fashion designer Allesandro Dell’Acqua‘s “Disco Africa” […]

Modern Griots Interviews: Renina Jarmon and Black Girls Are From the Future Part 2

Here is part two of the Renina Jarmon interview from yesterday. Below Jarmon talks about the significance of Erykah Badu, Octavia Butler and Janelle Monae, her future plans for Black Girls Are From the Future and the future she dreams of for Black girls: 6) The book includes discussions on Octavia Butler and Janelle Monae. […]

Modern Griots Interviews: Renina Jarmon and Black Girls Are From the Future

Renina Jarmon is a writer, cultural critic, blogger and educator whose work centers on Black women’s sexuality and pop culture, as well as race, technology and the concept of self. She recently released her book, Black Girls Are From the Future, a collection of essays based on her popular posts from her blog New Model […]