Afrofuturism
Definitions and origins of Afrofuturism:
Afrofuturism is an intersection of imagination, technology, the future, and liberation (9). “I generally define Afrofuturism as a way of imagining possible futures through a black cultural lens,” says Ingrid LaFleur, an art curator and Afrofuturist. “I see Afrofuturism as a way to encourage experimentation, reimagine identities, and activate liberation.” Afrofuturism as a term was coined by cultural critic Mark Dery, who used it in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future” to describe a flurry of analysis fueled by sci-fi loving black college students and artists who were passionately reframing discussions about art and social change through the lens of science and technology in the 1980s and 90s (16). Dery ushered in the serious study of cyberculture and gave a name to the technoculture trends in black America. Music and culture writers Greg Tate, Mark Sinker, and Kodwo Eshun were among the earliest Afrofuturism theorists (17). The roots of the aesthetic began decades before, but with the emergence of Afrofuturism as a philosophical study, suddenly artists like avant-garde jazz legend Sun Ra, funk pioneer George Clinton, and sci-fi author Octavia Butler were rediscovered and reframed by Afrofuturists as social change agents.
Afrofuturism and feminism:
“Women have a different approach in the way that they use Afrofuturism,” says art curator Ingrid LaFleur (99). Afrofuturism is a free space for women, a door ajar, arms wide open, a literal and figurative space for black women to be themselves (100-101). They can dig behind the societal reminders of blackness and womanhood to express a deeper identity and then use this discovery to define blackness, womanhood, or any other identifier in whatever form their imagination allows. In general, Afrofuturism is a home for the divine feminine principle, a Mother Earth ideal that values nature, creativity, receptivity, mysticism, intuition, and healing as partners to technology, science, and achievement (103). The divine feminine is the other side to the information-gathering process, and tapping into it is a process of choice for many Afrofuturists. There’s a widespread belief that humankind has lost a connection to nature, to the stars, to the cosmic sense of self, and that reclaiming the virtues of the divine feminine will lead to wholeness.
“Afrofuturism is a feminist movement,” says Alondra Nelson, Columbia University professor and Afrofuturism theorist who launched the Internet Listserv for Afrofuturism (108). The complex black women characters in black sci-fi stories and the plethora of Afrofuturist women in the arts and beyond are no accident, she says. “There have always been black feminists at the center of the project." "One characteristic is the empowerment of women to work and make decisions in an egalitarian environment,” says feminist Jennie Ruby (108). “Another is the acceptance of women’s bodies in all shapes, ages, sizes, and abilities.” She continued that, in a feminist space, there’s a democracy, a sharing of the workload, and a goal of “valuing nurturance and cooperation over aggression and competition, and working against sexism, racism, heterosexism, ageism, and classism” (109). [Afrofuturism] is not a space that women are finding identity; it is a feminist space,” says Alondra Nelson (109). “Of course it’s a space for women to feel empowered, because it’s a way to critique the ways people associate with science and technology. I think technology inherently opens the space for women to be central figures in that.”
Adrienne Maree Brown
“It’s amazing to change the world, but it’s heartbreaking, bone-cracking work, and you often don’t see the change in real time, says activist Brown (178). “For me as an organizer, what gets me through has been immersing myself into these sci-fi worlds.” She uses sci-fi to frame an inspirational perspective for youth she works with. “Your life is science fiction, she’s told them. “You are sci-fi, you are Luke Skywalker but way cooler; you’re trans and black and you’re surviving in the world of Detroit” (179). Brown uses Octavia Butler’s series The Parables and its postapocalyptic tale of discovery as a template for change agency in desperate communities (179). Many abandoned urban communities are postapocalyptic in nature and rife for community-born transformation (180). She references challenged areas in NYC, New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Detroit felt like it had been abandoned, when Smith first moved there. But then she recognized the supports and humanity. “It made me look at other cities differently. There are people living places we associate with the end of the world, but it’s not the end of the world, it’s the beginning of something else. An economy based on relationships and not the monetary value you can place on someone else” (180). Brown emphasizes that people need to have self-determination over their food supply. “In The Parables Butler talks about the Acorn communities--it’s an intentional community, a place where people come in an intentional way to build a life together. They are farming and they have accountability to one another. They have a spiritual community. I feel that is one strategy that’s laid out as one of the ways to survive a future where our resources are unsure” (180-181). “Another is door-to-door relationship building that is nonjudgmental. After the Acorn community is trashed, instead of the main character feeling smashed, she goes door-to-door and starts to build a community of believers who are not rooted in one place, but rooted in a shared ideology. It’s very similar to the Zapatista ideology. They went around for ten years building relationships one by one. Now a lot of organizing is done around the Internet and tweeting each other. If we weren’t able to do that, what would we do? We would work with whoever is there with us” (181). She’s a big advocate of teaching essential survival skills that are necessary in postapocalyptic circumstances, including gardening, basic care for the sick and wounded, and serving as midwife (181). “I’m also looking at building homes and bathrooms, How do you make a bathroom where there is none?” Brown’s main point is to generate solutions. “We shouldn’t spend the majority of our time trying to get someone else to be accountable for what happens to our communities,” she says (181). “What I like about Octavia is that there are so many people working outside of the system in her works. She says, ‘Don’t wait for someone to do it for you; you provide the solutions yourself.’ That apocalyptic situation is not something that someone else is going to get you out of; you have to lift yourself out of that.”