Tempestt Hazel, curator of The Future’s Past exhibition and executive director of the Chicago Arts Archive: A Sixty Inches From Center Project is doing a series on Afrofuturism and Afrosurrealism. Two of her first interviewees were visual artist Krista Franklin and Afrosurrealist creator D. Scott Miller. This is the beginning of Franklin’s interview: What is […]
Read More Moving on the Wires: Black to the Future SeriesA few weeks ago, Leo Dillon of the illustration husband-and-wife team Leo and Diane Dillon passed away. The duo won several awards over the years and created many wonderful illustrations for books, including books involving different cultures, stories and people of the African diaspora. Read his New York Times obituary and take a look at […]
Read More Art of This World: Leo and Diane DillonGrace Jones singing “Slave to the Rhythm” and looking fierce with a hula hoop at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert. Enough said.
Read More Otherworldly Videos: Grace Jones and a Hula HoopImani Uzuri’s The Gypsy Diaries We all are torn between home and the desire to wander. Home is where we feel we belong, where we feel safe, and where our family and friends reside. However, wandering takes us to new places where we learn wisdom follow our dreams and find out more about ourselves. It […]
Read More Modern Griots Review: On Imani Uzuri’s Journey…Louis Armstrong – “What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue” For Black Music History Month, I decided to write my own views on Afrofuturism: A few days ago, I finally started reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and within the first few pages, I could see how Ellison used musicality with his literary […]
Read More What is Afrofuturism? Part 9: Rhythmism… aka my reading list for the summer. I heard before the words used as a backronym for the Bible, so I thought I would use it here because it sounds like a phrase that could be used in science fiction. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Finished) The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison The Black […]
Read More Basic Insructions Before Leaving Earth…NEWS! Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Keith Josef Adkins is preparing to shoot a pilot for a new TV show called The Abandon, which will feature an all-black cast. Adkins, who was once a TV writer for the show Girlfriends, will be not only be a writer, but also a director and producer of the pilot.This […]
Read More Moving On the Wires: The AbandonRasheeda Phillips from The Afrofuturist Affair discusses her definition of Afrofuturism: Via Alicia McCalla’s Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Stories of Color The Future is already Here. It’s just unevenly distributed. – William Gibson The word “futurism” embedded in the term Afrofuturism denotes a forward-looking aesthetic or theme that envisions the prospective future of humanity. If […]
Read More What Is Afrofuturism? Part 8: Rasheedah PhillipsDestra Garcia – “Bacchanal” While doing research to write one of my poems, I learned about the Greek god Dionysus/Roman god Bacchus and Bacchanalia festivals. When I heard the word Bacchanalia, I thought of how often Bacchanal is said in Caribbean Calypso and Soca music, and I wanted to know the connections between Caribbean carnival […]
Read More The My-Stery: Bacchanal!!!!
Sherese Francis 