A F R O F U T U R I S M
To see more of Manzel Bowman's Illustrating Us Black to the Future, click HERE
According to Louis Chude-Sokei, Chair of African American Studies at Boston University, "Afrofuturism isn’t about forgetting the past, but reshaping the past towards the future.” Afrofuturism blends science fiction, fantasy, and tribal tradition to imagine a future without non-African influence. (Alyssa Mercant, What is Afrofuturism? An Illustrated Guide from SUN RA to T'Challa)
"Since the 1990s we have seen an explosion of speculative art rooted in the black diasporic experience. Spanning media and crossing borders, the speculative work offered by these voices has coalesced into a movement broadly defined as Afrofuturism.... Afrofuturism is an evolving theoretical framework that seeks to reframe how we think about the past and future of race and identity, colonial legacies and our approach to science and technology." (Dr. Julian Chambliss, course description of IAH221C Fall 2019 syllabus)
Photo Credit: Third Stone
Afrofuturism by
Comprising elements of the avant-garde, science fiction, cutting-edge hip-hop, black comix, and graphic novels, Afrofuturism spans both underground and mainstream pop culture. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and all social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves. This book introduces readers to the burgeoning artists creating Afrofuturist works, the history of innovators in the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and NK Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, topics range from the "alien" experience of blacks in America to the "wake up" cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. Interviews with rappers, composers, musicians, singers, authors, comic illustrators, painters, and DJs, as well as Afrofuturist professors, provide a firsthand look at this fascinating movement.
Afrofuturism 2. 0 by
The ideas and practices related to afrofuturism have existed for most of the 20th century, especially in the north American African diaspora community. After Mark Dery coined the word "afrofuturism" in 1993, Alondra Nelson as a member of an online forum,
Afrofuturism and black sound studies : culture, technology, and things to come by
This book interrogates the meeting point between Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies. Whereas Afrofuturism is often understood primarily in relation to science fiction and speculative fiction, it can also be examined from a sonic perspective. The sounds of Afrofuturism are deeply embedded in the speculative - demonstrated in mythmaking - in frameworks for songs and compositions, in the personas of the artists, and in how the sounds are produced.
The Afrofuturism Cyclicality of Past, Present, and Future in Kendrick Lamar's to Pimp a Butterfly by
In December of 2015, President Barack Obama told People Magazine that his favorite song of the year was Kendrick Lamar's "How Much a Dollar Cost". The track, a self-revelatory story in which Kendrick Lamar comes across a homeless man at a gas station who begs for money, alludes to the parable in Matthew 25:40 in which Jesus decides who he will take to Heaven....
Afrofuturism Rising by
Growing out of the music scene, afrofuturism has emerged as an important aesthetic through films while the significance of these sonic and visual avenues for afrofuturism cannot be underestimated, literature remains fundamental to understanding its full dimensions.
The Blacker the Ink by
When many think of comic books the first thing that comes to mind are caped crusaders and spandex-wearing super-heroes. Perhaps, inevitably, these images are of white men (and more rarely, women). It was not until the 1970s that African American superheroes such as Luke Cage, Blade, and others emerged. But as this exciting new collection reveals, these superhero comics are only one small component in a wealth of representations of black characters within comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels over the past century. The Blacker the Ink is the first book to explore not only the diverse range of black characters in comics, but also the multitude of ways that black artists, writers, and publishers have made a mark on the industry. Organized thematically into "panels" in tribute to sequential art published in the funny pages of newspapers, the fifteen original essays take us on a journey that reaches from the African American newspaper comics of the 1930s to the Francophone graphic novels of the 2000s. Even as it demonstrates the wide spectrum of images of African Americans in comics and sequential art, the collection also identifies common character types and themes running through everything from the strip The Boondocks to the graphic novel Nat Turner. Though it does not shy away from examining the legacy of racial stereotypes in comics and racial biases in the industry, The Blacker the Ink also offers inspiring stories of trailblazing African American artists and writers. Whether you are a diehard comic book fan or a casual reader of the funny pages, these essays will give you a new appreciation for how black characters and creators have brought a vibrant splash of color to the world of comics.
Black Utopia by
Alex Zamalin offers a groundbreaking examination of African American visions of utopia and their counterutopian counterparts. Considering figures linked to racial separatism, postracialism, anticolonialism, Pan-Africanism, and Afrofuturism, he argues that the black utopian tradition continues to challenge American political thought and culture.
Black women in sequence : re-inking comics, graphic novels, and anime by
"Black Women in Sequence takes readers on a search for women of African descent in comics subculture. From the 1971 appearance of the Skywald Publications character "the Butterfly"--The first Black female superheroine in a comic book--to contemporary comic books, graphic novels, film, manga, and video gaming, a growing number of Black women are becoming producers, viewers, and subjects of sequential art. As the first detailed investigation of Black women's participation in comic art, Black Women in Sequence examines the representation, production, and transnational circulation of women of African descent in the sequential art world. In this groundbreaking study, which includes interviews with artists and writers, Deborah Whaley suggests that the treatment of the Black female subject in sequential art says much about the place of people of African descent in national ideology in the United States and abroad."--Publisher's description.
Dark Matter by
This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.
Divine Consciousness by
Divine Consciousness: From a Dystopian Diaspora to Afrofuturism, takes readers on a journey, from a point in time when the African Diaspora was just beginning, to a time yet to be determined—the future.
Encyclopedia of Black Comics by
The Encyclopedia of Black Comics, focuses on people of African descent who have published significant works in the United States or have worked across various aspects of the comics industry. The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers, illustrators, artists, writers, editors, Black comic historians, Black comic convention creators, website creators, archivists and academics--as well as individuals who may not fit into any category but have made notable achievements within and/or across Black comic culture.
Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century by
Finalist, 2021 Locus Award In Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century, eminent contributors pay tribute to Afrofuturism as a powerful and evolving aesthetic practice that communicates the experience of science, technology, and race across centuries, continents, and cultures. While Ryan Coogler and Janelle Monáe may have helped bring the genre into contemporary pop consciousness, it in fact extends back to the writing of eighteenth-century poet Phyllis Wheatley and has continued in the work of Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, N. K. Jemisin, and many others. In examining this heritage, contributors in this volume question generic boundaries, recover lost artists and introduce new ones, and explore how the meteoric rise of a new, pan-African speculative literary tradition may or may not connect with Afrofuturism. Additionally, the editors have marshaled some of today's most exciting writers for a roundtable discussion of the genre: Bill Campbell, Minister Faust, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Chinelo Onwualu, Nisi Shawl, and Nick Wood. Pioneering author and editor Sheree R. Thomas limns how black women have led new developments in contemporary Afrofuturism, and artist Stacey Robinson's illustrations orient readers to the spirited themes of this enduring and consequential literary tradition.
Longer Views by
"Reading is a many-layered process -- like writing," observes Samuel R. Delany, a Nebula and Hugo award-winning author and a major commentator on American literature and culture. In this collection of six extended essays, Delany challenges what he calls "the hard-edged boundaries of meaning" by going beyond the customary limits of the genre in which he's writing. By radically reworking the essay form, Delany can explore and express the many layers of his thinking about the nature of art, the workings of language, and the injustices and ironies of social, political, and sexual marginalization. Thus Delany connects, in sometimes unexpected ways, topics as diverse as the origins of modern theater, the context of lesbian and gay scholarship, the theories of cyborgs, how metaphors mean, and the narrative structures in the Star Wars trilogy. "Over the course of his career," Kenneth James writes in his extensive introduction, "Delany has again and again thrown into question the world-models that all too many of us unknowingly live by." Indeed, Delany challenges an impressive list of world-models here, including High and Low Art, sanity and madness, mathematical logic and the mechanics of mythmaking, the distribution of wealth in our society, and the limitations of our sexual vocabulary. Also included are two essays that illustrate Delany's unique chrestomathic technique, the grouping of textual fragments whose associative interrelationships a reader must actively trace to read them as a resonant argument. Whether writing about Wagner or Hart Crane, Foucault or Robert Mapplethorpe, Delany combines a fierce and often piercing vision with a powerful honesty that beckons us to share in the perspective of these Longer Views.
Migrating the Black body : the African diaspora and visual culture by
Migrating the Black Body" explores how visual media - from painting to photography, from global independent cinema to Hollywood movies, from posters and broadsides to digital media, from public art to graphic novels -has shaped diasporic imaginings of the individual and collective self. How is the travel of black bodies reflected in reciprocal black images? How is blackness forged and remade through diasporic visual encounters and reimagined through revisitations with the past? And how do visual technologies structure the way we see African subjects and subjectivity? This volume brings together an international group of scholars and artists who explore these questions in visual culture for the historical and contemporary African diaspora. Examining subjects as wide-ranging as the appearance of blackamoors in Russian and Swedish imperialist paintings, the appropriation of African and African American liberation images for Chinese Communist Party propaganda, and the role of YouTube videos in establishing connections between Ghana and its international diaspora, these essays investigate routes of migration, both voluntary and forced, stretching across space, place, and time.
Mothership by
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond is a groundbreaking speculative fiction anthology that showcases the work from some of the most talented writers inside and outside speculative fiction across the globe--including Junot Diaz, Victor LaValle, Lauren Beukes, N. K. Jemisin, Rabih Alameddine, S. P. Somtow, and more. These authors have earned such literary honors as the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker, among others.
A Pure Solar World by
Sun Ra said he came from Saturn. Known on earth for his inventive music and extravagant stage shows, he pioneered free-form improvisation in an ensemble setting with the devoted band he called the "Arkestra." Sun Ra took jazz from the inner city to outer space, infusing traditional swing with far-out harmonies, rhythms, and sounds. Described as the father of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra created "space music" as a means of building a better future for American blacks here on earth. A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism offers a spirited introduction to the life and work of this legendary but underappreciated musician, composer, and poet. Paul Youngquist explores and assesses Sun Ra's wide-ranging creative output--music, public preaching, graphic design, film and stage performance, and poetry--and connects his diverse undertakings to the culture and politics of his times, including the space race, the rise of technocracy, the civil rights movement, and even space-age bachelor-pad music. By thoroughly examining the astro-black mythology that Sun Ra espoused, Youngquist masterfully demonstrates that he offered both a holistic response to a planet desperately in need of new visions and vibrations and a new kind of political activism that used popular culture to advance social change. In a nation obsessed with space and confused about race, Sun Ra aimed not just at assimilation for the socially disfranchised but even more at a wholesale transformation of American society and a more creative, egalitarian world.
Silent Interviews by
Samuel R. Delany, whose theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy has won him a broad audience among academics and fans of postmodernist fiction, offers insights into and explorations of his own experience as writer, critic, theorist, and gay black man in his new collection of written interviews, a form he describes as a type of "guided essay." Gathered from sources as diverse as Diacritics and Comics Journal, these interviews reveal the broad range of his thought and interests.
Avengers of the New World by
Where next for the Black Panther? Find out as a sensational new arc begins! Eons ago - before Black Panthers, before Wakanda, before time itself - there were only the Orishas! The pantheon of gods and goddesses from which the world as we know it was manifested: Asali. Ogutemeli. Bast. But now, when Wakanda burns, they are silent. When she was flooded, they were silent. While her people war amongst themselves, ever silent they remain. Where have all the gods of Wakanda gone? T'Challa means to find out... MacArthur Fellow and national correspondent for The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) is joined by rising superstar Wilfredo Torres (Moon Knight) - and together they set out to redefine faith and theology for the Marvel Universe! COLLECTING: BLACK PANTHER 13-18
Black Panther by
Black Panther s greatest foe has returned Ulysses Klaw is back and ready for war! Can T Challa defeat the man who killed his father all while his country struggles to its feet? And as war looms, Wakanda s gods have disappeared. Enter the Originators! The former gods are back but what are their intentions for a land that has forgotten them?
Black Panther by
MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winner T- Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) takes the helm, confronting T'Challa with a dramatic upheaval in Wakanda. When a superhuman terrorist group that calls itself The People sparks a violent uprising, the land famed for its incredible technology and proud warrior traditions will be thrown into turmoil. If Wakanda is to survive, it must adapt - but can its monarch survive the necessary change? Collecting: Black Panther 1-4
Black Panther: a Nation under Our Feet Book 3 by
The full truth of the People's revolution - and the power players supporting it - has been revealed! Now, T'Challa must fight like never before for the fate of his nation - and one of his most trusted allies is back to stand by his side. As the final battle begins, the entirety of Wakanda's glorious history may be their most potent weapon. But even if the People fall, can the monarchy still stand? The pieces are all in position, now it's time for Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze to knock over the board as their revitalization of Black Panther continues! COLLECTING: BLACK PANTHER 9-12
Black Panther and the Crew by
Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold band together to take on a dangerous wave of street-level threats in a new series by co-writers Ta-Nehisi Coates (New York Times best-selling author of Between the World and Me and Marvel's Black Panther) and Yona Harvey (Black Panther: World of Wakanda), and legendary artist Butch Guice! The death of a Harlem activist kicks off a mystery that will reveal surprising new secrets about the Marvel Universe's past - and set the stage for a huge story in the near future! Fear, hate and violence loom, but don't worry, The Crew's got this: They are the streets. COLLECTING: BLACK PANTHER AND THE CREW 1-6
The Einstein Intersection by
The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of 1967. The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are "different" must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey's mythic quest for his lost love, Friza. In luminous and hallucinated language, it explores what new myths might emerge from the detritus of the human world as those who are "different" try to seize history and the day.
Stories for Chip by
Stories for Chip brings together outstanding authors inspired by a brilliant writer and critic, Science Fiction Writers of America Grandmaster Samuel R. "Chip" Delany. Award-winning SF luminaries such as Michael Swanwick, Nalo Hopkinson, and Eileen Gunn contribute original fiction and creative nonfiction. From surrealistic visions of bucolic road trips to erotic transgressions to mind-expanding analyses of Delany's influence on the genre--as an out gay man, an African American, and possessor of a startlingly acute intellect--this book conveys the scope of the subject's sometimes troubling, always rewarding genius. Editors Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell have given Delany and the world at large, a gorgeous, haunting, illuminating, and deeply satisfying gift of a book.
Conscientious Sorcerers by
Fox offers a clear and important, if brief, consideration of the fiction of Baraka, Reed, and Delany. He renders an especially important service by establishing the relationship among three fictionists whose work has been substantially neglected. . . . Readers will find this volume useful as a starting point for the investigation of recent Afro-American fiction and as an example of the application of poststructuralist criticism to Afro-American fiction. Choice This book is a provocative and enlightening study of the fiction of LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Ishmael Reed and Samuel R. Delany, three black American writers who are among the most gifted literary artists of the past twenty-five years. These authors, who emerged in the tumultuous period of the 1960s, when the complacencies of the previous decade were being challenged throughout the country, are examined here within the context of Afro-American literature.
Atlantis by
Wesleyan University Press has made a significant commitment to the publication of the work of Samuel R. Delany, including this recent fiction, now available in paperback. The three long stories collected in Atlantis: three tales -- "Atlantis: Model 1924," "Erik, Gwen, and D. H. Lawrence's Aesthetic of Unrectified Feeling," and "Citre et Trans" -- explore problems of memory, history, and transgression. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Guest of Honor at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Delany was won a broad audience among fans of postmodern fiction with his theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy. The stories of Atlantis: three tales are not SF, yet Locus, the trade publication of the science fiction field, notes that the title story "has an odd, unsettling power not usually associated with mainstream fiction." A writer whose audience extends across and beyond science fiction, black, gay, postmodern, and academic constituencies, Delany is finally beginning to achieve the broader recognition he deserves.
A Curated Reading/Viewing List from Dr. Julian Chambliss' Introduction to Afrofuturism course syllabus: Afrofantastic: Race, Power, and Gender in the Black Imaginary (IAH 221C - Michigan State University, 2019)
Lisa Yaszek, “Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, and the History of the Future,” Socialism and Democracy 20, no. 3 (November 2006): 41–60.
Samuel R. Delany, “Racism and Science Fiction”
Mark Dery, Black to the Future
Reynaldo Anderson and Charles E. Jones, “The Rise of Astro-Blackness” from Afrofuturism 2.0 (Book order requested)
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Comet”
Sun Ra Interview (see Interviews)
Sun Ra's Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, “The Black Man in the Universe,” or “The Black man in the Cosmos”
Erik Steinskog, "Blackness, Technology and Changing Same” (Request via ILL)
Lee “Scratch” Perry - Studio Black Ark (see Music); Lee "Scratch" Perry Interview (see Interview)
George Clinton and Parliament – Mothership Connection (see Music); Clinton and P-Funk Interview (see Interview)
Grace Gipson, “Afrofuturism’s Musical Princess Janelle Monae” (in Afrofuturism 2.0)
Janelle Monáe - Q.U.E.E.N. feat. Erykah Badu (see Music); Dirty Computer (see film)
George E. Lewis, “Foreword: After Afrofuturism,” Journal of the Society for American Music 2, no. 2 (May 2008): 139–53.
Pumzi by Wanuri Kahiu (see Film)
Brother from Another Planet (1984) Movie (full run time 1 hr. 48 min.)
Reynaldo Anderson, “A Case Study in Visual Rhetoric, Sequential Art, and Postapocalyptic Black Identity,” From The Blacker the Link: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (see Books, Chapter 8; ILL from JSTOR)
Dwayne McDuffie and Gregory Wright, Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins (Marvel, 1990) (Book order requested)
Sheena C. Howard, “Black Panther and the Politics of Black Heroism,” Black Perspectives (blog), March 10, 2018. (To locate similar articles use #comicsandrace to search for items on Black Perspectives (see Websites))
BET’s Black Panther, Episode 1 (see Television)
Documentary -- The Last Angel of History (1997)
Andre Carrington, “Space Race Woman” from Speculative Blackness (Book order requested)
Additional Readings
Reynaldo Anderson, AFROFUTURISM 2.0 & THE BLACK SPECULATIVE ART MOVEMENT Notes on a Manifesto
Reynaldo Anderson, "On Black Panther, Afrofuturism, and Astroblackness: A Conversation with Reynaldo Anderson", The Black Scholar
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Zora Neale Hurston Festival | Afrofuturism Conference | January 30-31, 2020 | Orlando, Florida
Fledgling by
"A master storyteller, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature." - The Washington Post This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.
Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by
Instant #1 New York Times BestsellerWinner of the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium Octavia E. Butler's bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format. More than 35 years after its release, Kindred continues to draw in new readers with its deep exploration of the violence and loss of humanity caused by slavery in the United States, and its complex and lasting impact on the present day. Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler's mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century. Butler's most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre-Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana's own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him. Held up as an essential work in feminist, science-fiction, and fantasy genres, and a cornerstone of the Afrofuturism movement, there are over 500,000 copies of Kindred in print. The intersectionality of race, history, and the treatment of women addressed within the original work remain critical topics in contemporary dialogue, both in the classroom and in the public sphere. Frightening, compelling, and richly imagined, Kindred offers an unflinching look at our complicated social history, transformed by the graphic novel format into a visually stunning work for a new generation of readers.
Parable of the Sower by
After her neighborhood is overrun by a pyromaniac cult, adolescent Lauren Olamina gains followers on her way toward refuge in California. Awards: SLJ Best Book; YALSA Best Book for Young Adults.
Parable of the Talents by
Lauren Olamina's daughter, Larkin, describes the broken and alienated world of 2032, as war racks the North American continent and an ultra-conservative religious crusader becomes president.
Wild Seed by
As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past--and mankind's destiny is changed forever. For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity. Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Octavia E. Butler's sweeping cross-century epic places her "among the best of contemporary SF writers" (Houston Chronicle). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author's estate.
Lilith's Brood by
The acclaimed trilogy that comprises LILITH'S BROOD is Hugo and Nebula award-winner Octavia E. Butler at her best. Presented for the first time in one volume with an introduction by Joan Slonczewski, Ph.D., LILITH'S BROOD is a profoundly evocative, sensual -- and disturbing -- epic of human transformation. Lilith Iyapo is in the Andes, mourning the death of her family, when war destroys Earth. Centuries later, she is resurrected -- by miraculously powerful unearthly beings, the Oankali. Driven by an irresistible need to heal others, the Oankali are rescuing our dying planet by merging genetically with mankind. But Lilith and all humanity must now share the world with uncanny, unimaginably alien creatures: their own children. This is their story...
Imago by
The stunning conclusion to a postapocalyptic trilogy about an alien species merging with humans--from "one of science fiction's finest writers" (TheNew York Times). Human and Oankali have been mating since the aliens first came to Earth to rescue the few survivors of an annihilating nuclear war. The Oankali began a massive breeding project, guided by the ooloi, a sexless subspecies capable of manipulating DNA, in the hope of eventually creating a perfect starfaring race. Jodahs is supposed to be just another hybrid of human and Oankali, but as he begins his transformation to adulthood he finds himself becoming ooloi--the first ever born to a human mother. As his body changes, Jodahs develops the ability to shapeshift, manipulate matter, and cure or create disease at will. If this frightened young man is able to master his new identity, Jodahs could prove the savior of what's left of mankind. Or, if he is not careful, he could become a plague that will destroy this new race once and for all. Readers of Ursula K. Le Guin and N. K. Jemisin will be fascinated by bestselling author Octavia Butler's thought-provoking and compelling vision of humanity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author's estate.
Dawn by
Lilith lyapo awoke from a centuries-long sleep to find herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. Creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased strength, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to Earth--but for a price.
Bloodchild and Other Stories by
A newly expanded edition of Octavia E. Butler's only collection of short stories. Butler graces new mansions of thought with her eloquent, distinguished and poignant prose. Although this book is little in size, its ideas are splendidly large.' - Booklist 'The title story is justly famous. Splendid pieces, set forth in calm, lucid prose with never a word wasted.' - Kirkus Reviews This New York Times notable Book includes the Hugo and the Nebula awards winner Bloodchild and the Hugo Award winner Speech Shounds.'
Blackheart Man by
The magical island of Chynchin is facing conquerors from abroad and something sinister from within in this entrancing fantasy from the Grand Master Award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson. Veycosi, in training as a griot (an historian and musician), hopes to sail off to examine the rare Alamat Book of Light and thus secure a spot for himself on Cynchin's Colloquium of scholars. However, unexpected events prevent that from happening. Fifteen Ymisen galleons arrive in the harbor to force a trade agreement on Cynchin. Veycosi tries to help, hoping to prove himself with a bold move, but quickly finds himself in way over his head. Bad turns to worse when malign forces start stirring. Pickens (children) are disappearing and an ancient invading army, long frozen into piche (tar) statues by island witches is stirring to life--led by the fearsome demon known as the Blackheart Man. Veycosi has problems in his polyamorous personal life, too. How much trouble can a poor student take? Or cause all by himself as the line between myth and history blends in this delightfully sly tale by one of greatest novelists.
Brown Girl in the Ring by
The rich and the privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways -- farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
The Chaos by
Navigate between myth and chaos in this "journey filled with peril, self-discovery, and terrifying moments" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in--at home she's the perfect daughter, at school she's provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn't feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can't be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother--and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. Scotch needs to get to the bottom of this supernatural situation ASAP before the Chaos consumes everything she's ever known--and she knows that the black shadowy entity that's begun trailing her every move is probably not going to help. A blend of fantasy and Caribbean folklore, at its heart this tale is about identity and self-acceptance--because only by acknowledging her imperfections can Scotch hope to save her brother.
Falling in Love with Hominids by
An alluring new collection from the author of the New York Times Notable Book, Midnight Robber Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, The Salt Roads, Sister Mine) is an internationally-beloved storyteller. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as having "an imagination that most of us would kill for," her Afro-Caribbean, Canadian, and American influences shine in truly unique stories that are filled with striking imagery, unlikely beauty, and delightful strangeness. In this long-awaited collection, Hopkinson continues to expand the boundaries of culture and imagination. Whether she is retelling The Tempest as a new Caribbean myth, filling a shopping mall with unfulfilled ghosts, or herding chickens that occasionally breathe fire, Hopkinson continues to create bold fiction that transcends boundaries and borders.
House of Whispers Vol. 2: Ananse by
She may be the goddess of love and beauty, but for Voodoo deity Erzulie things are getting uglier by the minute. As a magical epidemic rages, Erzulie's legendary House of Dahomey has been stranded on the shores of the Dreaming, leaving the soulless bodies of the plague's victims to roam the Earth. And all the while, Shakpana--god of pox, plague, and pestilence--grows stronger. It's enough to confound even the most experienced of Loas. So to help her untangle the threads of her own history, Erzulie turns to Ananse, the spider-god of stories. But Ananse is more twisted than any of his tales, and he has his sights set on the juiciest prize of all. Now Erzulie and her sister-selves--each more powerful and terrible than the last--must fight for the fate of the world against two of the most infamous immortals in existence. It's their biggest gamble yet--and when the stakes are this high, the house doesn't always win. The acclaimed creative team of Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber), Dan Watters (Coffin Bound, The Shadow), and Dominike "DOMO" Stanton (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) take Erzulie's mythical houseboat deep into the uncharted waters of New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's fantastical Sandman Universe in House of Whispers Vol. 2: Ananse! Collects House of Whispers #7-12.
House of Whispers Vol. 3: Watching the Watchers by
What is it like to have the House of Whispers as the house next door? Follow a young woman as she finds out. This unexpected domestic mishap leaves her in dire need of aid from Erzulie and Ogun... whether she knows it or not. Written by Nalo Hopkinson, award-winning author of Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber, and Dominike "DOMO" Stanton, artist of the acclaimed Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The Sandman Universe is a new series of books curated by Neil Gaiman for DC Black Label. Conjuring epic storytelling and immersing readers in the evolving world of the Dreaming, the Sandman Universe begins anew with four new ongoing series, existing in a shared universe, building upon Gaiman's New York Times bestselling series that lyrically weaved together stories of dreams and magic. Collects House of Whispers #13-22
Midnight Robber by
It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to you Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to weart at the festival -- untiel her power-coprrupted father commits an unforgivable crime. Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folkklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must redeach into the heart of myth -- and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life...and set her free.
Mojo by
When enslaved people were brought from the western part of Africa to the Americas, they were forbidden to speak their native languages or practice their religions in the New World.
The New Moon's Arms by
In the bestselling tradition of Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, and Alice Walker comes the breakthrough work by award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson about the unexpected discovery of a mysterious orphaned child and the disruption it causes in the life of a Caribbean woman. First it's her mother's missing gold brooch. Then, a blue and white dish she hasn't seen in years. Followed by an entire grove of cashew trees. When objects begin appearing out of nowhere, Calamity knows that the special gift she has not felt since childhood has returned-her ability to find lost things. Calamity, a woman as contrary as the tides around her Caribbean island home, is confronting two of life's biggest dramas. First is the death of her father, who raised her alone until a pregnant Calamity rejected him when she was sixteen years old. The second drama: she's starting menopause. Now when she has a hot flash and feels a tingling in her hands, she knows it's a lost object calling to her. Then she finds something unexpected: a four-year-old boy washes up on the shore, his dreadlocked hair matted with shells. Calamity decides to take the orphaned child into her care, which brings unexpected upheaval into her life and further strains her relationship with her adult daughter. Fostering this child will force her to confront all the memories of her own childhood-and the disappearance of her mother so many years before.
Report from Planet Midnight by
A fascinating fictive polemic from the award-winning Nalo Hopkinson. Hopkinson address the crowd during a Guest of Honour address to the 2012 conference of Interational Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, in the voice of an alien. The alien evaluates Earth's strange customs, including the marginalisation of works by non white and women authors. A dramatic mix of humour, anger and shrewd analysis pervades this discussion of the unconcious and unacknowledged racism of white colleagues and points the way to a more diverse and inclusive future.
The Salt Roads by
When three Caribbean slave women gather one night to bury a stillborn baby, their collected mournings braid into a powerful calling, and a deity is born. So begins the epic jouney of a spirit who defies the limitations of time and place to inhabit the minds of living women throughout history.
Sister Mine by
Nalo Hopkinson--winner of the John W. Campbell Award, the Sunburst Award, and the World Fantasy award (among others), and lauded as one of our "most inventive and brilliant writers" (New York Post)--returns with a new work exploring the relationship between two sisters in this richly textured and deeply moving novel. We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. She'd never have been able to push the two-headed sport that was me and Abby out the usual way. Abby and I were fused, you see. Conjoined twins. Abby's head, torso, and left arm protruded from my chest. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't. Far as the Family was concerned, Abby was one of them, though cursed, as I was, with the tragic flaw of mortality. Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls gave Abby a permanent limp, but left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father, the god of growing things--a highly unusual childhood that made them extremely close. Ever since Abby's magical talent began to develop, though, in the form of an unearthly singing voice, the sisters have become increasingly distant. Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life among the other nonmagical, claypicken humans--after all, she's one of them. In Cheerful Rest, a run-down warehouse space, Makeda finds exactly what she's been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby and begin building her own independent life. There's even a resident band, led by the charismatic (and attractive) building superintendent. But when her father goes missing, Makeda will have to discover her own talent--and reconcile with Abby--if she's to have a hope of saving him . . .
Skin Folk by
The SFWA Grand Master's award-winning collection "combines a richly textured multicultural background with incisive storytelling" (Library Journal). In Skin Folk, with works ranging from science fiction to Caribbean folklore, passionate love to chilling horror, Nalo Hopkinson is at her award-winning best, spinning tales like "Precious," in which the narrator spews valuable coins and gems from her mouth whenever she attempts to talk or sing. In "A Habit of Waste," a self-conscious woman undergoes elective surgery to alter her appearance; days later she's shocked to see her former body climbing onto a public bus. In "The Glass Bottle Trick," the young protagonist ignores her intuition regarding her new husband's superstitions--to horrifying consequences. Hopkinson's unique pacing and vibrant dialogue sets a steady beat for stories that illustrate why she received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Entertaining, challenging, and alluring, Skin Folk is not to be missed. Praise for Nalo Hopkinson and the World Fantasy Award-winning Skin Folk "Hopkinson's prose is vivid and immediate." --The Washington Post Book World "An important new writer." --The Dallas Morning News "Her descriptions of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances ring true, the result of her strong evocation of place and her ear for dialect." --Publishers Weekly "A marvelous display of Nalo Hopkinson's talents, skills and insights into the human conditions of life, especially of the fantastic realities of the Caribbean . . . Everything is possible in her imagination." --Science Fiction Chronicle
So Long Been Dreaming by
An astonishing new anthology of original stories by leading South Asian, Caribbean and African authors, as well as North American and British writers of colour. Writer and editor Hopkinson notes that the science fiction genre speaks much about the experience of being alienated, but contains so little writing by alienated people themselves'. Collected in this anthology are bold, imaginative stories centred around the imagined futures of those people who live in countries that are deemed to be 'third world', that aim to redress this imbalance.'
Tesseracts Nine by
Tesseracts Nine also made the LOCUS Recommended reading list for 2006. It was included in the Locus Poll for best anthology! Many of the stories have now appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies. While other stories received nominations for the Brandon, Fountain, Sturgeon and Aurora Awards. "Apparently being in T9 was a Good Thing." -- Derryl Murphy Each year Tesseract Books chooses a team of editors from amongst the best of Canada's writers, publishers and critics to select innovative and futuristic fiction and poetry from the leaders and emerging voices in Canadian speculative fiction. Tesseracts Nine expands the dimensions of speculative fiction experientially, with startling visions of the future by new and established Canadian authors. Featuring twenty-three stories and poems by: Timothy J. Anderson, Sylvie Berard, Rene Beaulieu, E. L. Chen, Candas Jane Dorsey, Pat Forde, Marg Gilks, Sandra Kasturi, Nancy Kilpatrick, Claude Lalumi re, Anthony MacDonald, Jason Mehmel, Yves Meynard, Derryl Murphy, Rhea Rose, Dan Rubin, Daniel Sernine, Steve Stanton, Jerome Stueart, Sarah Totton, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Peter Watts, Allan Weiss, Alette J. Willis and Casey June Wolf. Edited by Sunburst and World Fantasy Award winning authors Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman, Tesseracts Nine showcases the very best in Canadian speculative fiction literature (including English translations of works by French-Canadian authors).
Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root by
The lushness of language and the landscape, wild contrasts, and pure storytelling magic abound in this anthology of Caribbean writing. Steeped in the tradition of fabulism, where the irrational and inexplicable coexist with the realities of daily life, the stories in this collection are infused with a vitality and freshness that most writing traditions have long ago lost. From spectral slaving ships to women who shed their skin at night to become owls, stories from writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Marcia Douglas, Ian MacDonald, and Kamau Brathwaite pulse with rhythms, visions, and the tortured history of this spiritually rich region of the world.
In Constructing a Nervous System, critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson shatters her self into pieces and recombines them into a new and vital apparatus on the page, fusing the criticism that she is known for, fragments of the family members she grieves for, and signal moments from her life, as well as the words of those who have peopled her past and accompanied her in her solitude, dramatized here like never before.
Black No More is based on a fantastical, speculative premise: What if there were a machine that could turn black people permanently white? What if such a machine were invented in and introduced to 1920s America, a time of both increasing racial pride and persistent racial violence? What would the social and political implications be of such a race-reversal machine? What would it reveal about society? What lies and hypocrisies about blackness and whiteness and American identity would be revealed by the chaos that would ensue?
In a futuristic yet oddly contemporary world, a passing comet casts a shadow of death over Manhattan. Only two survive: a black man whose world has been one of poverty and hard work, and a white woman who knows only leisure and privilege. If humanity is to have a future, the two must build a new world from the wreckage of the old.
First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature. For not only does Ralph Ellison's nightmare journey across the racial divide tell unparalleled truths about the nature of bigotry and its effects on the minds of both victims and perpetrators, it gives us an entirely new model of what a novel can be.
An early example of Afrofuturistic writing, this 1904 novel is the first imagining of a realistic post racist society in America. The protagonist loses control of an airship in 1906 and awakens in 2006 to find that, much to his surprise, America has made many strides towards becoming an egalitarianism.
In August of 1887 “The Goophered Grapevine,” a short story by Charles Waddell Chesnutt appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. It was the first story by an African American ever printed in that respected magazine and marked the emergence of Chesnutt on the American literary scene. “The Goophered Grapevine” resembles the plantation fiction of such popular authors as Thomas Nelson Page, but while Page wrote sentimentally of the love of ex-slaves for their white masters and the good life of the old plantation, Chesnutt wrote of African Americans who viewed the antebellum world in which they had lived with less affection and more honesty. Uncle Julius is a shrewd man with a hidden agenda. His former master was both gullible and comically dishonest, and surrounding the world of slave and master is “conjure,” a mixture of superstition and magic. “The Goophered Grapevine” is Chesnutt’s most anthologized work and appears as one of several similar stories in his first book, The Conjure Woman.
Through essays by some of hip-hop’s most interesting thinkers, theorists, journalists, writers, emcees, and DJs, Boogie Down Predictions embarks on a quest to understand the connections between time, representation, and identity within hip-hop culture and what that means for the culture at large. Introduced by Ytasha L. Womack, author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, this book explores these temporalities, possible pasts, and further futures from a diverse, multilayered, interdisciplinary perspective.
In this blockbuster fantasy series fate binds two Black teenagers together as they journey into a magical jungle to hunt down a vicious monster. But it quickly becomes unclear whether they are the hunters or the hunted…
Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight readers years after her death.
Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today.
It is a time of calamity in the city’s Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the first black female elevator inspector in the history of the department, is at the center of it. In the department you are either an Empiricist, who works by the book, or an Intuitionist, who can divine any defects. When a new elevator goes into total freefall on Lila Mae’s watch, chaos ensues. But as an Intuitionist, she is never wrong. When Lila Mae goes underground to investigate the crash, she will uncover a secret that will change her life forever.
Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there … The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. Into this disaster zone comes a young man—poet, lover, and adventurer—known only as the Kid. Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and groundbreaking work of American magical realism.
Karen Lord is one of today’s most brilliant young talents. Her science fiction, like that of predecessors Ursula K. Le Guin and China Miéville, combines star-spanning plots, deeply felt characters, and incisive social commentary. With The Galaxy Game, Lord presents a gripping adventure that showcases her dazzling imagination as never before.
A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces have reclaimed a small section of land—aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of a civilian sweeper unit tasked with the mundane task of removing the remaining feral zombies. He is also dealing with the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong…
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping
In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air--in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.
Black Perspectives serves as the blog for the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). "Today Black Perspectives is the leading online platform for public scholarship on global Black thought, history, and culture."
ICONOGRAPHY: An assignment created by Dr. Julian Chambliss
For this project, you will create a visual set that explores the themes and highlight transformative ideas linked to Afrofuturism. These posters can be created using desktop tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft PowerPoint, or online tools such as Canva.com or Ease.lly.com.
The ICO posters are a different methodology to explore the contributions and perspectives linked to Afrofuturism you have read about throughout the course. All posters will be submitted electronically. These posters will be included in an online gallery governed by a creative commons license. You should sign each poster to ensure attribution.
Each student will complete a set of three (3) posters. The poster themes will be:
Your ICO set will be accompanied by a creator statement. In the creator statement, you will discuss why you made the decision you did in creating your images, describe your inspiration, citing specific ideas from the class readings that shaped your choices, and talk explicitly about other works that inspired your approach. This creator statement will be 500 words.
Link to Julian Chambliss
MAFANIKIO: Land, Industry, and Information across the African Diaspora - An assignment designed by Dr. Walter Greason
This link will take you to a YouTube channel of over 50 short films.
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