Afrofuturism
Description
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture and speculative fiction, encompassing a range of media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences. While Afrofuturism is most commonly associated with science fiction, it can also encompass other speculative genres such as Afro-fantasy, fantasy, alternate history and magic realism, and can also be found in music. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Mark Dery
Cultural critic who formally coined the term 'Afrofuturism' in his seminal 1993 essay 'Black to the Future,' initiating the theoretical study of speculative Black technoculture.
Alondra Nelson
Leading scholar and sociologist who established the foundational Afrofuturism online listserv in the late 1990s and edited the landmark 2002 special issue of Social Text.
Ytasha L. Womack
Author and theorist whose comprehensive 2013 book 'Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture' defined the contemporary movement across fine art, literature, and music.
Wangechi Mutu
Renowned Kenyan-American visual artist and sculptor whose cyborgian collages and monumental figures explore African diasporic futures and speculative bodily metamorphosis.
Ellen Gallagher
Prominent contemporary painter and multimedia artist whose intricate 'Watery Ecstatic' works visualize mythical Black underwater futures inspired by the Middle Passage and Drexciyan lore.
Lauren Halsey
Contemporary American artist creating immersive architectural sculptures that merge ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic iconography with South Central Los Angeles Afrofuturist urbanism.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
Although the aesthetic and themes of Afrofuturism trace back to mid-century pioneers like Sun Ra and Octavia Butler, the exact term 'Afrofuturism' did not exist until American cultural critic Mark Dery coined it in his 1993 essay 'Black to the Future.'
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
In 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled 'Before Yesterday We Could Fly,' breaking its centuries-old tradition of historical period rooms by building a permanent Afrofuturist room envisioning what Seneca Village would look like today had it not been destroyed in 1857 to build Central Park.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org