What happens when an enslaved person is given the tools to express her desire for freedom after being captured? When a young child taken from Senegal to Boston and renamed after the slave ship on which she was brought is then taught to read and write in not her own language and history, but in […]
Read More The M(N)STRY: Phillis Wheatley and Fugitive ImaginationThe last post for Caribbean Heritage Month is a mix between Space:Queens and Art of This World segments, featuring three visual artists whose work I’ve seen in Queens — Reginald Rosseau and his exhibition, Unmasked — Embodiment of Spirits, at Seed Capital Cafe; Nari Ward and his G.O.A.T., Again exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park, and […]
Read More Astro-Caribbean: ReturnFor the second to last Astro-Caribbean post for this month, I am featuring Caribbean authors and their books! I was unfortunately unable to attend Word!: A Caribbean Lit Fest on June 11th, but I did read through the authors and panels and saw that a few of them who have recently released works of fantasy, […]
Read More Astro-Caribbean: CaribLitIt is a surreal feeling to know that you could go to war and fight for your country, survive the war and instead of coming back as a celebrated hero, be assaulted and lynched by the people whose freedom you fought for them to have. That was the reality of many black veterans who returned from […]
Read More The M(N)STRY: Alternative Memorial DayThe Arch. The Ark. The Archive. The Arcane. The Archon. The Architect. The Archangel. The ArchAndroid. The Chief Holder of a Culture’s Knowledge for Future Recollection. The Cybernetic Helms(wo)man of the Ship Sailing to a New Horizon. Last weekend, I attended Summoning the Archive at NYU. Attending it inspired me to think of the “archive” […]
Read More The M(N)STRY: The ArkiveSo as you know a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to be part of the Black Speculative Arts Movement Conference, #BSAMFuturismo2017, at the Bronx Museum of Arts! Well, let me share with you some of the highlights from the day! *Aesthetics and Actions in Afrofuturism/Black Speculative Thought: Before I get to the above […]
Read More M.G. Recap: BSAM Futurismo 2017!I was reading Albert Camus’s famous lecture, “Create Dangerously,” when I came across this sentence: “A man’s obedience to his own genius,” Emerson says magnificently, “is faith in its purest form.” Bruce George, originally of Def Poetry Jam, has led the way for a new movement called Genius Is Common.
Read More M.G. Spotlight: Genius Is CommonRemember this song from Ludacris and Mary J. Blige? “Runaway Love” came to my mind last week when the stories of the Missing DC girls started to spread throughout media. One particular story highlighted a young girl who ran away because she felt mistreated in foster family. Much too often the mistreatment of young black girls are ignored […]
Read More The M(N)STRY: Black Girls and FugitivityRecently I received a copy of Octavia Butler’s Kindred graphic novel, which was adapted by Damien Duffy and John Jennings. Reading the story in graphic novel form gave me a chance to see aspects of the book that I didn’t pay as much attention to as before. One was the mechanism by which Dana traveled back […]
Read More The M(N)STRY: Butler’s Kindred — Possession, Objectification and Whose Gaze Controls Black FuturityGuess what? What? I’m on Wattpad! As I continue writing my fantasy novel, I want to keep practicing my story-writing skills, therefore, I will be posting short fiction on there. My first is called, “A Stitch In Time,” which follows a teenage girl who meets an unexpected guest who lives in her home and discovers […]
Read More StoryCraft: A Stitch In Time
Sherese Francis 