Afrofuturism

In his book More Brilliant Than The Sun, Kodwo Eshun gives a concise summary of history of the term:

AfroFuturism comes from Mark Dery's '93 book [Flame Wars], but the trajectory starts with Mark Sinker. In 1992, Sinker starts writing on Black Science Fiction; that's because he's just been to the States and Greg Tate's been writing a lot about the interface between science fiction and Black Music. Tate wrote this review called "Yo Hermeneutics" which was a review of David Toop's Rap Attack plus a Houston Baker book, and it was one of the first pieces to lay out this science fiction of black technological music right there. And so anyway Mark went over, spoke to Greg, came back, started writing on Black Science Fiction. He wrote a big piece in The Wire, a really early piece on Black Science Fiction in which he posed this question, asks "What does it mean to be human?" In other words, Mark made the correlation between Blade Runner and slavery, between the idea of alien abduction and the real events of slavery.

Music

• Sun Ra's The Arkestra, started in mid-1950s.
• George Clinton, Mothership Connection, 1975.
• Lee "Scratch" Perry, The Black Ark, studio and label, 1973-78.

Fiction

• Jalada 02: Afrofuture(s), 2015. A collection of short stories and poems centred on the genres of Afrofuturism and AfroSF.

Documentary

• The Last Angel of History, dir. John Akomfrah, 45 min. Written and researched by Edward George of Black Audio Film Collective. Explores relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and computer technology. Featuring Tate, Eshun, Goldie, Clinton, Derrick May and others. [1]

Resources

• Afrofuturism.net

Writings

• Greg Sinker, "Loving the Alien: In Advance Of The Landing", The Wire 96 (Feb 1992).
• Greg Tate, "Yo! Hermeneutics!: Henry Louis Gates, Houston Baker, David Toop", in Tate, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, New York, 1992; repr. in Yo! - Hermeneutics!, ed. Diedrich Diederichsen, Berlin: ID-Verlag, 1993, pp 165-176.
• Diedrich Diederichsen (ed.), Yo! - Hermeneutics! Schwarze Kulturkritik Pop/Medien/Feminismus, Berlin: ID-Verlag, 1993. TOC, Preface (DE), [2]. (English),(German)
• Mark Dery, "Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose", in Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, ed. Dery, Duke University Press, 1994, pp 179-222.
• Ian Penman, "Black Secret Tricknology", The Wire 133 (Mar 1995). Review of Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye.
• Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, London: Verso, 1993; Harvard University Press, 1993. [3]
• Kodwo Eshun, More Brilliant Than The Sun. Adventures in Sonic Fiction, Quartet Books, 1998, 239 pp. [4]
• Diedrich Diederichsen (ed.), Loving the Alien. Science Fiction, Diaspora, Multikultur, ID Verlag, 1998.
• Mark Dery, "Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0", in Dery, The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink, 1999. [5] [6]
• Krystian Woznicki, "Afro-Futurismus im Strukturwandel. Zur afro-amerikanischen Sci-Fi-Ikonografie unter den Bedingungen der New Econonmy", Telepolis, 20 Nov 2001. (German)
• Social Text 71: "Afrofuturism", ed. Alondra Nelson, Summer 2002, 146 pp.
• Christian Zemsauer, "The Slave, the Robot and the Alien", Mar 2002. An introduction to Afrofuturism.
• Kodwo Eshun, "Further Considerations on Afrofuturism", The New Centennial Review 3:2 (Summer 2003), pp 287-302.
• Science Fiction Studies 34:2 (102): "Afrofuturism", Jul 2007. [7]
• D. Scot Miller, "AfroSurreal Generation: Afrosurreal Manifesto", 20 May 2009.
• The Shadows Took Shape, eds. Naima J. Keith and Zoe Whitley, New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 2013, 160 pp. Review: Malatjie (JAS 2014).
• Paradoxa 25: "Africa SF", ed. Mark Bould, 2013. [8]
• Dariusz Brzostek, "Afrofuturyzm – od analogowej wyobraźni do cyfrowego oporu", Fragile 2:20 (2013), pp 72-76. (Polish)
• Adriano Elia, "The Languages of Afrofuturism", Lingue e Linguaggi 12 (2014), pp 83-96.
• Achille Mbembe, "Afrofuturisme et devenir-nègre du monde", Politique africaine 136 (4/2014). (French)
• Martine Syms, "The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto", The Third Rail 3 (2014).
• A2 22: "Afrofuturismus", Prague, 29 Oct 2015. Special issue of the magazine. [9] (Czech)
• Nadine Botha, "We need Afrofuturism more than ever", Dazed, 23 Nov 2015.

Events

• The Shadows Took Shape, exhibition, Studio Museum, Harlem, Nov 2013-Mar 2014. Curated by Naima J. Keith and Zoe Whitley. [10]
• From P-Funk & Techno to Afrofuturism: Afrofuturism Now! On Screen, an event at WORM, Rotterdam, 2015. [11]
• Afrofuturism Now! Festival, WORM, Rotterdam, 14-18 Oct 2015. Report.
• Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination, exhibition, New York Public Library, Oct 2015-Jan 2016. Brochure.
• Afrofuturism: Imagining the Future of Black Identity, panel discussion, Civic Hall, New York, 3 Dec 2015. Commentary.

Links

• The Afrofuturist Affair, a community for Philadelphia AfroFuturists.