Moving on the Wires: This Week’s News and Posts

*Please DONATE to my blog! Any amount is appreciated! You can click the paypal button at the side panel or send it to my email svfreebird87@gmail.com through paypal. I was not able to do this post last week because my computer malfunctioned, so this is a combined post for the past two weeks. *If you […]

Modern Griots Recap: Sanford Biggers and Saul Williams in Conversation

Brooklyn Museum assistant curator Rujeko Hockley moderated a conversation at the Studio Museum last week with artists Sanford Biggers and Saul Williams and their relationship to afrofuturism. Here are some notes from the conversation: *Rujeko thinks of Afrofuturism as a process rather than a label, using it as a label may be too restrictive. But […]

The My-Stery: The Legba Circuit in Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’

Two of my favorites quotations from Invisible Man: “Beware of those who speak of the spiral of history; they are preparing a boomerang. Keep a steel helmet handy” and “The old is ever new.” Today is Ralph Ellison’s Birthday and he would have been his 100th birthday. So, here is a taste (a short summary) of […]

Moving on the Wires: This Week’s News and Posts

*Please DONATE to my blog at the side of my blog to fund trademarking and future merchandising, and to continue my ability to attend future events. Doing this costs money!!! Anything helps!!! Thank you!!!! *New Submission Guidelines on Contact and Submissions Page. Update: *Unnamed Press announced the NYC launch of PEN Fellow Deji Bryce Olukotun’s […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Man From Tomorrow – The Time Wizard Jeff Mills

Last week, I attended the premiere of the Detroit techno icon Jeff Mills‘ film, Man from Tomorrow, and the film and following conversation stirred some thoughts. Overall, the 45-minute, Jacqueline Caux-directed film was a surreal journey into Mills mindset as a DJ, mixing his music with Caux’s otherworldly imagery. There are obvious abstract influences from […]

Modern Griots Recap: The Black Aquatic and Afrofuturism

We often imagine exploration into worlds beyond ours in outer space, but what about the mysterious depths of the watery underground, of utopian worlds like Drexciya or Atlantis. Below are notes from the panel featuring Jared Richardson, Alexander Weheliye and Edgar Arceneaux: Richardson– *Displacement and collective memory *Azealia Banks, queerness and fluid sexuality in blackness […]

Moving on the Wires: This Week’s News and Posts

*On this blog for this month will be “Black Retrofuturism Month,” so I will be posting throughout the month afrofuturistic cultural productions from the past in a series called, “Rewind.” *BUTCH DIVA, the Brooklyn-based fashion haus that I have featured before on my blog, has a new collaboration with Jamaican-bred artist Robin Clare. They teamed […]

Moving on the Wires: This Week’s News and Posts

Sorry I did not post for most of the week; I have a slight sprained wrist, so I had to slow down a bit on writing. But anyway, here is some news articles and written pieces from the week: *Martin Luther King in Science Fiction on i09 *”Playing a Minority Forecaster in search of Afrofuturism: […]

Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: Notes from Kindred Book Club

Here’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 […]

Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: The Shadows Took Shape Panel Recap

As 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 […]