#afrofuturist — Public Fediverse posts

We're creating a toolkit for using African Speculative Fiction for policy making and review - help us out by giving feedback on the overall structure of the website:

- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGDdpQLxKvowoMkdYq3tRhtDnoejGb4us_AnyPd6gmcWyQgg/viewform
- https://app.lyssna.com/do/jmvq88qqonck/dpywla
- https://app.lyssna.com/do/e0vqbtftx42c/kt3bsi

Each one only takes 2-3 minutes. Do share!

#AfricanFuturist #AfroFuturist #AfricanSpeculativeFiction #PolicyDesign

I first encountered Sun Ra’s #jazz when I was working at Sound Warehouse in college. His album covers looked amazing. I think he may have been my introduction to #afrofuturist #music. youtu.be/RpZOcDPjV20?...

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible | Of...

#BlackPanther

By Ryan Coogler, 2023

"Black Panther is a #solarpunk, #afrofuturist superhero film that helps spark discussions about three aspects of climate literacy: access to #NaturalResources, especially #RareEarthMetals like the fictional vibranium; the interconnectedness of #RacialJustice and #ClimateJustice, including one’s responsibilities to other people and nations across the globe; and the role of #GreenTechnology, including urban design, to create a #sustainable, just, and #ecological civilization."

https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-panther/

#SolarPunkSunday #ClimateJustice #Wakanda #GreenDesign #Africa #RacialJustice #EcologicalLiteracy #SolarPunkFiction #AfroFuturism

I finished reading "Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors", an anthology of environmentally-minded short stories about living in the far future, with #solarpunk and #afrofuturist vibes (it also calls itself "hopepunk", whatever that means, I guess "hopeful"?).

Aside from science fiction, some stories used magical realism or went surreal.

Grist, an environmentalist non-profit, publishes a book like it every year. You can it here, for free:

https://grist.org/imagine2200-climate-fiction-2021/

https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/benji-reid-factory-international-find-your-eyes/

At the end of last night's show at #saddlerswells, Benji Reid said Find Your Eyes won’t be performed again in the UK. But if it is don’t miss it. It’s stunning. A completely unique #afrofuturist fusion of #photography, #choreography, #theatre, #dance, #music, #fashion, #design, #mime.

You might want to take what Reid himself says about it with a pinch of salt. In keeping with the current obsession with #memoir and #biography — the idea of ‘telling my story’ in ways that explore ‘universal themes’ and speak ‘to a wider audience’ (see his 2021 Laugh at Gravity publication for the #octobergallery) — he presents the work in terms that make it appear far more conventional and less imaginative than it really is. Reid is one of those #artists who may not be the best at writing about their own work. (Marina Abramović is another.) Just go and experience it.

Check out this online event: The #BlackFantastic: The New Wave of #Afrofuturist Fiction.

#ScienceFiction #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #Afrofuturism

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-fantastic-the-new-wave-of-afrofuturist-fiction-registration-1232435871869

HT @susurros
What #OctaviaButler saw on Feb. 1, 2025, three decades ago

by Russell Contreras

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler wrote in her 1993 novel "#ParableOfTheSower" that Feb. 1, 2025, would be a time of #fires, #violence, #racism, #addiction, #ClimateChange, social #inequality and an authoritarian "#PresidentDonner."

That day is today.

The big picture: This Black History Month, which begins this year on a day of Butler's dystopian vision, Axios will examine what the next 25 years may hold for Black Americans based on the progress in the first quarter of this century.

Through her fiction, Butler foresaw U.S. society's direction and the potential for civil societies to collapse thanks to the weight of economic disparities and climate change — with blueprints for hope.
#Afrofuturist writers today interpret Butler's work as metaphorical warnings that appear to be coming true and a call to action.

State of play: This year, the month-long celebration of Black American accomplishments and perseverance will be commemorated amid uncertainty after the Trump administration ordered government agencies to end DEI policies.

The move is confusing some agencies on whether Black history can even be acknowledged this year while the nation deals with rising hate crimes, the aftermath of California wildfires, a fentanyl epidemic and a new president who blames the country's ills on workforce diversity.
Meanwhile, states like Alabama have passed bills limiting the discussion of race and Black history in public schools.

Zoom in: In "Parable of the Sower," the novel's 15-year-old protagonist, Lauren Olamina, writes a simple journal entry: Saturday, February 1, 2025: "We had a fire today. People worry so much about fire."

What unfolds in the pages that follow is a dystopian world surrounding the gated, racially mixed, fictional community of Robledo, California.
A new drug forces addicts to set fires to communities, who then rob and rape victims. Unhoused people roam the streets and are forced to steal to survive. Hurricanes, fires and violence push Americans to flee north to Canada.
President Donner, like President Trump, promises to restore the country to its former glory.
Racially mixed couples, like Olamina's Black/Chicano family, are vulnerable to attacks, and her parents, both PhD holders, have limited job opportunities.

Yes, but: Black, white, Latino and Asian Americans fall in love despite the racism outside the walls.

They arm themselves and protect each other.
They share history and books in defiance of attempted erasure.

What they're saying: "She was trying to warn us of a possible future that she saw coming if we did not change," Jesse Holland, editor of the anthology, "Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson," tells Axios.

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/01/octavia-butler-feb-1-2025-black-history-month
#BlackHistoryMonth

A brief intro to the #afrofuturist scene in Philadelphia. #art #music

https://theconversation.com/afrofuturism-thrives-in-philly-5-artists-you-should-know-235069

With her Afrofuturist novel "Archangels Of Funk," writer Andrea Hairston is giving us a third opportunity to hang out with Cinnamon Jones, the main character of "Redwood And Wildfire" and "Will Do Magic For Small Change." And in this exclusive interview, you find out why.
https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-archangels-of-funk-author-andrea-hairston/
📖🪄
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
#AndreaHairston #AndreaHairstonInterview #AndreaHairstonArchangelsOfFunk #AndreaHairstonArchangelsOfFunkInterview #Books #Afrofuturism #Afrofuturist

While "Tales Of Kenzera: ZAU" is a typical side-scrolling action game, it's also a really good one. Here's the link to my review.
https://paulsemel.com/tales-of-kenzera-zau-review/
🎮🏃🏾
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
#TalesOfKenzeraZAU #TalesOfKenzeraZAUReview #gaming #games #VideoGames #SideScroller #SideScrolling #Afrofuturist #Africanfuturist #TalesOfKenzeraZAUXboxSeriesS #TalesOfKenzeraZAUXboxSeriesXS #TalesOfKenzeraZAUPlayStation5 #TalesOfKenzeraZAUPS5 #TalesOfKenzeraZAUPC

Mural of Mary Ann Shadd, the first black woman to publish a newspaper in North America

https://streetartutopia.com/2024/02/13/portrait-of-mary-ann-shadd-in-toronto/

"What all the #Drexciyan tales have in common is an attempt to deal with the trauma of #slavery by imagining an alternative narrative. And while this #Afrofuturist water race is fictional (and there is no known record of pregnant women being cast to sea from slave ships), Drexciya has helped inspire a new movement that is very real indeed: namely, proposals to create an ocean memorial to the victims of slavery."

This is a very good read -- which points out that Ancient Egypt was #African, but often gets lumped into #Mediterranean history (guilty of that myself). And yes, I wondered about Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep as well... Also, there are "love spells" in Egyptian magic whose purpose was for a woman to attract another woman.

themstory: #AncientEgypt Was Totally Queer

By Hugh Ryan
February 22, 2018

"In 1964, archaeologists in Egypt opened the tomb of #Niankhkhnum and #Khnumhotep, two men who lived and died sometime around the year #2380BCE. Inside, they would discover what might be the oldest evidence of queer lives in existence.

"In the tomb, the two were depicted in many of the stereotypical ways that heterosexual couples were shown in Egyptian funereal art: kissing nose-to-nose, holding hands, and standing very closely together, almost in an embrace. Their wives (and children) are also depicted in the tombs, though curiously, there are no paintings of either man embracing or kissing their wife.

"If a man and a woman were depicted in this way, they would obviously be interpreted as a couple. And so, faced with all this evidence, archaeologists leapt to the conclusion that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were... brothers — really, really close brothers. Possibly even conjoined twins (not that they are depicted as conjoined in the tomb at all — in fact, they are often depicted separately).

"#JacklynLacey, who specializes in #AfricanEthnology at the American Museum of Natural History, is unsurprised about these interpretations. I can almost hear her eyes roll over the phone as she talks about the long history within the field of #archaeology — 'a discipline that has reproduced itself through the #colonialist #WhiteMale lens,' she says — of 'explaining away things that appear queer.'

"What is definitely known about Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep? They worked as chief manicurists to the Pharaoh in the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom. This might sound like the set-up for a terrible gay remake of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but at the time, grooming the Pharoah was revered labor.

"Though they weren’t themselves nobility, it is clear from their tomb that the two men were of high status. And, curiously enough, they were of equal status, being depicted in complimentary activities without either being shown as smaller, lesser, or subservient to the other.

"According to author Wael Fathi, this is far from the only allusion to queerness in Ancient Egyptian culture. For other examples, he cites the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written in 970 BCE (not to be confused with the Tibetan Book of the Dead, written sometime in the 8th century CE). Its female author writes, 'I never had sex with a woman in the temple.' Who knew so much suggestion could be packed into the phrase 'in the temple.' There are also numerous allusions to same-sex sexual activity and gender bending among the tales of Egyptian gods. And in the Book of Dreams (circa 1200 BCE), different fates are laid out for the woman who has sex with a married woman versus the one who has sex with a single woman.

"Still and all, it would be historically inaccurate to talk about 'gay Ancient Egyptians,' Lacey hastens to clarify, for two reasons. First, we’re dealing with small amounts of evidence, which makes it hard to interpret what, exactly, we’re seeing. It’s not strictly impossible that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep could have been especially close brothers, or even twins. As for the Book of the Dead, prominent men (and occasional women) paid to have versions written out specifically for them, and some have suggested that this particular version miscopied a line meant for a man into a text for a woman. Second, even when we do correctly identify a practice — say, of women having sex with one another outside of the temple — that doesn’t mean that that physical activity is correlated with the same kind of identity we know today as lesbianism. (For this reason, I prefer to use the word queer, as a way of gesturing towards a sexual or emotional practice that was unusual — no such other tombs of two men or two women have been yet identified — and outside the bounds of heterosexuality.)

"Egyptian history is, in some ways, particularly prone to these problems of misinterpretation, because starting in the late 19th and early 20th century, 'the country is basically excised out of the continent and moved into the Levant by Westerners,' according to Lacey. Over and over again, historians and archaeologists have contrasted Egyptians with Greeks and Romans, and have seen Egyptian practices through what we know from those cultures, rather than putting them in conversation with other #AfricanEmpires — even though, for example, we know that the 25th Dynasty of Egypt (aka the #KushiteEmpire) was actually a series of five #Nubian rulers, who came from Northern #Sudan. Lacey tells me that there is a persistent rumor among scholars who study Nubia that 'there were entirely homosexual groups of men living in the kingdom of Kush,' though no one has ever isolated the source of those rumors, or proven or disproven them. Perhaps that’s because only a tiny fraction of the time, money, and effort that’s been spent on archaeology and ethnography in Egypt and the Mediterranean has ever been spent on other parts of Africa.

"In fact, when the African Peoples hall opened at the American Museum of Natural History in 1960, it was the first major permanent museum exhibition to include Egypt with the rest of Africa. To this day, Lacey points out, this is a problem in most museums. 'The Met has a Department of Africa, The Americas, and Oceania,' she says, “essentially combining four continents, but it also has a department of Egyptology.” And at the Brooklyn Museum, they have a collection of “Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art,” which mixes Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and Ancient Greek and Roman artifacts.

"Queer Egyptian history is thus caught in a double bind: it is rarely seen as queer, and rarely seen as African. Perhaps today, at a time when we are finally willing to accept an #Afrofuturist fictive African empire that has nothing to do with the West, as audiences did with the record-breaking film Black Panther this weekend, we can extend our imaginations backwards and begin to imagine a past that sees Africa as an entire continent — one in conversation with #Mediterranean cultures, but not the same as them."

Hugh Ryan is the author of the forthcoming book When Brooklyn Was Queer (St. Martin’s Press, March 2019), and co-curator of the upcoming exhibition On the (Queer) Waterfront at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Source:
https://www.them.us/story/themstory-ancient-egypt

#AncientEgypt #LGBTQHistory
#Histodon #AncientHistory #QueerHistory #Histodon

Since it's been sunnier in #London I managed to get a better photo of #ZakOve's #Afrofuturist #Sculpture in #RegentsPark for #FriezeLondon

@InterzoneMag Online graphics are good. But did I miss this classic #AfroFuturist #Album cover from #MilesDavis ?
https://www.milesdavis.com/albums/bitches-brew/

This week I've mainly been reading, No.51:

Nnedi Okorafor's #afrofuturist book Noor (2021) is a lively tale of a female cyborg in (near-future) #Nigeria, battling a powerful (#Amazon-like) corporation that is fostering division & violence among the desert nomads. Its good knock-about stuff with some great set-pieces & ends with what looks to be a set-up for a series. Its sharp & politically astute, if at times a little rushed in its plotting; still a great read!
@bookstodon
#Fantasy #scifi

Miles Davis didn’t begin to draw and paint in earnest until he was in his mid-fifties. He was said to have worked obsessively each day on art when he wasn’t touring. His style was a bold and masculine mixture of Kandinsky, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Picasso and African tribal art.

#Miles Davis #Painting #Afrofuturist

#WaxTrax #NowPlaying

#MilesDavis
1/22/75 tokyo
(h/t @theheatwarps)

incredible radio broadcast from the japan tour that later yielded AGHARTA/PANGAEA. after opening up something like '#ambient jazz' with IN A SILENT WAY & dense freeform electrofusion groove w/BITCHES BREW and ON THE CORNER (+related dates), miles dove for ocean-floor #psychedelia, filling cavernous beat-space w/protometal textures (pete cosey!!) and knifepoint funk moves. hard #afrofuturist noise. pair w/live 72-73 #mwandishi.

I finally saw "Neptune Frost," a low-budget film co-directed by Anisia Uzeyman & Saul Williams, that's been described as an #afrofuturist #cyberpunk #musical.
Dream-like, non-linear, and intersectional, the materiality of coltan mining and the recycled ewaste that litter a refuge called Digitaria is mapped to poetic and aural decodings of "techno," the connective idealisms as well as the brutal dystopias of its uses. The aesthetic they've used to express it makes the movie a must-see.

All I saw was "Afrofuturist"!

Afrofuturist strategy game We Are The Caretakers leaves early access today https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/afrofuturist-strategy-game-we-are-the-caretakers-leaves-early-access-today

#AfroFuturist #StrategyGame #PC #Xbox #GameRelease #BlackMastodon

#BlackFriday is heeeeeere!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFFzc9x8Gg4

#Drexciya #afrofuturist #BlackMastodon #BlackFediverse

Miles Davis ~ Sivad
(Live - Evil, 1970 - Live at the Cellar Door, December 1970)
#NowPlaying #MilesDavis

https://youtu.be/UxW2gMuFpTQ via @YouTube

#Afrofuturist #Music #musique

It’s After the End of the World: The Afrofuturist Dystopia of Gerald Jenkins
(Dangerous Minds)

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/its_after_the_end_of_the_world_the_afrofuturist_dystopia_of_gerald_jenkins

#Photography #collage #Afrofuturist

American Visionary Photographer / Artist Gerald Jenkins

Afrofuturist Dystopia: Under-Different-Stars
(from It’s After the End of the World)

#Photography #collage #Afrofuturist