Glad you did. Like you say, I too have never heard of any Black
artist making such a personal song about ancient Egypt. That 60s/70s
guy "Sun Ra" used some heavy Egyptian imagery but his stuff if
I remember leaned more psychedelic/new age type.
Speaking of Sun Ra what do you make of 'Afro-futurism'
per wiki article below?
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Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past. First coined by Mark Dery in 1993, and explored in the late 1990s through conversations led by scholar Alondra Nelson,[1] Afrofuturism addresses themes and concerns of the African Diaspora through a technoculture and science fiction lens, encompassing a range of mediums and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afrodiasporic experiences.[2] Examples of seminal Afrofuturistic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the photography of Renée Cox; and the explicitly extraterrestrial mythoi of Parliament-Funkadelic, the Jonzun Crew, and Sun Ra.[3]
Contents
1 History
1.1 20th Century
1.2 21st Century
1.3 Art
1.3.1 Women
1.3.2 The Grotesque
1.4 Alienation
2 The Mundane
3 References
3.1 Citations
3.2 Further reading
4 External links
History
20th Century
Afrofuturism can be identified in artistic, scientific, and spiritual practices throughout the African diaspora. Contemporary practice retroactively identifies and documents historical instances of Afrofuturist practice and integrates them into the canon. Examples are the Dark Matter anthologies, which feature contemporary Black sci-fi, but also include older works by W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles W. Chesnutt, and George S. Schuyler. Since the term was introduced in 1994, self-identified Afrofuturist practice has become increasingly ubiquitous. The afrofuturist approach to music was first propounded by the late Sun Ra. Born in Alabama, Sun Ra's music coalesced in Chicago in the mid-1950s, when he and his Arkestra began recording music that drew from hard bop and modal sources, but created a new synthesis which also used afrocentric and space-themed titles to reflect Ra's linkage of ancient African culture, specifically Egypt, and the cutting edge of the Space Age. Ra's film Space Is the Place shows the Arkestra in Oakland in the mid-1970s in full space regalia, with a lot of science fiction imagery as well as other comedic and musical material.
Afrofuturist ideas were taken up in 1975 by George Clinton and his bands Parliament and Funkadelic with his magnum opus Mothership Connection and the subsequent The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, P Funk Earth Tour, Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome, and Motor Booty Affair. In the thematic underpinnings to P-Funk mythology ("pure cloned funk"), Clinton in his alter ego Starchild spoke of "certified Afronauts, capable of funkitizing galaxies."
William Gibson's Neuromancer describes Zion, a Rastafarian space station populated by exiles of Earth, and dwelling of Maelcum, a Dub aficionado and one of the novel's main characters.
Other musicians typically regarded as working in or greatly influenced by the Afrofuturist tradition include reggae producers Lee "Scratch" Perry and Scientist, hip-hop artists Afrika Bambaataa and Tricky, and electronic musicians Larry Heard, A Guy Called Gerald, Juan Atkins and Jeff Mills.[4]
In the early 1990s, a number of cultural critics, notably Mark Dery in his 1994 essay Black to the Future, began to write about the features they saw as common in African-American science fiction, music and art. Dery dubbed this phenomenon “afrofuturism”.
According to the cultural critic Kodwo Eshun, British journalist Mark Sinker was theorizing a form of Afrofuturism in the pages of The Wire, a British music magazine, as early as 1992.
Afrofuturist ideas have further been expanded by scholars like Alondra Nelson, Greg Tate, Tricia Rose, Kodwo Eshun, and others.[2] In an interview with Alondra Nelson, she explains Afrofuturism as a way of looking at the subject position of black people which covers themes of alienation and aspirations for a utopic future. The idea of 'alien' or 'other' is a theme often explored.[5] Additionally, Nelson notes that discussions around race, access, and technology often bolster uncritical claims about a so-called “digital divide”.[6] The digital divide overemphasizes the association of racial and economic inequality with limited access to technology. This association then begins to construct blackness “as always oppositional to technologically driven chronicles of progress.”[6] As a critique of the neo-critical argument that the future’s history-less identities will end burdensome stigma, Afrofuturism holds that history should remain apart of identity, particularly in terms of race.[6]
21st Century
In a more contemporary fashion, Janelle Monáe has made a conscious effort to restore Afrofuturist cosmology to the forefront of urban contemporary music. Her notable works include the music video Prime Time, as well as Many Moons, which explores the realms of slavery and freedom through the world of cyborgs and the fashion industry.[7][8] She has noted that some of her influences are Metropolis, Blade Runner, and Star Wars.[9] Other musical artists to emerge since the turn of the millennium regarded as Afrofuturist include dBridge, SBTRKT, Shabazz Palaces and Heavyweight Dub Champion.[4]
Chicago is home to a vibrant community of artists exploring Afrofuturism. Most notably, Nick Cave, known for his Soundsuits project, has helped develop younger talent as the director of the graduate fashion program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Other artists include visual artists Hebru Brantley as well as contemporary artist Rashid Johnson, a Chicago native currently based in New York. In 2013, Chicago resident Ytasha L. Womack wrote the book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Science Fiction and Fantasy. Author William Hayashi, mentioned in Womack's book, has published two volumes of his Darkside Trilogy that tells the story of what happens in America when the country discovers African Americans secretly living on the backside of the moon since before the arrival of Neil Armstrong; an extreme vision of segregation imposed by technologically advanced Blacks.[10][11] Krista Franklin, a member of University of Chicago's Arts Incubator, is currently exploring the relation between Afrofuturism and the grotesque through her visual and written work with weaves and collected hair. Recently, she also created an audio narrative in collaboration with another Afrofuturist, Perpetual Rebel, called The Two Thousand and Thirteen Narrative(s) of Naima Brown, which explores the ideas of identity and transformation within the context of hair and African American culture.[12]
Art
Women
Jared Richardson's Attack of the Boogeywoman: Visualizing Black Women's Grotesquerie in Afrofuturism[13] assesses how the aesthetic functions as a space for black women to engage with the intersection of topics such as race, gender, and sexuality. The representation and treatment of black female bodies is deconstructed by Afrofuturist contemporaries and amplified to alien and gruesome dimensions by artists such as Wangechi Mutu and Shoshanna Weinberger.
The Grotesque
In the Afro-Surreal Manifesto, Afro-surrealism is juxtaposed with European surrealism, with European surrealism being empirical. It is consistent with the New Black Aesthetic in that the art seeks to disturb. It samples from old art pieces updating them with current images. This technique calls to the forefront those past images and the sentiments, memories, or ideas around them and combines them with new images in a way that those of the current generation can still identify. Both seek to disturb, but there is more of a "mutant" psychology that is going on. Afro-Futuristic artists seek to propose a deviant beauty, a beauty in which disembodiment is both inhumane, yet distinct; Afro-Futuristic artists speculate on the future, where Afro-Surrealism is about the present.[14]
Alienation
Additionally the making of Afrofuturism is a world building process. It takes representations of the lived realities of black bodies in the past and present and reexamines the narratives to provide new truths outside of the dominant cultural narrative. By analyzing the ways in which alienation has occurred afrofuturism work to connect the African diaspora with its histories and knowledge of racialized bodies. Space and Aliens function as key products of the science fiction elements. Black bodies are envisioned to have been the first aliens by way of the Middle Passage. Their creation of alien status is not only about connotations of being in foreign lands with no history, but also being disconnected from the past via the traditions of slavery where slaves were made to renounce their ties to Africa in service of their slave master. Eshun following the narratives of Toni Morrison locates the first alienation within the context of the Middle Passage.[15] He writes that afrofuturist texts work to reimagine slavery and alienation by using “extraterrestriality as a hyperbolic trope to explore the historical terms, the everyday implications of forcibly imposed dislocation, and the constitution of Black Atlantic subjectivities.This location of dystopian futures and present realities places science fiction and novels built around dystopian societies directly in the tradition of black realities.
The Mundane
The idea of mundane Afrofuturism is one that is preoccupied with the contemporary and historical realities of black contribution to the world, as opposed to a science fiction reality. The idea of this sect being mundane refers to the everyday possibilities and realities of black people.
Martine Syms’ Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto,[16] published December 17, 2013, rejects typical science fiction tropes that stereotype black people in their fiction as opposed to discussing the achievements that blacks have already made. Additionally the manifesto calls for Afrofuturist text to work in reality. Instead of creating alternate universes or distant future, it calls on authors and artist to examine how black people can be extraordinary contemporarily.
References
Citations
Rambsy II, Howard (2012-04-14). "A Notebook on Afrofuturism". Cultural Front. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
Yaszek, Lisa (November 2006). "Afrofuturism, science fiction, and the history of the future". Socialism and Democracy 20 (3): 41–60. doi:10.1080/08854300600950236. NB: Open Access version also available
"Calls for Papers: Afro-Futurism". Callaloo 26 (3): 932–934. 2003. doi:10.1353/cal.2003.0081. ISSN 1080-6512. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
Reddell, Trace (2013). "Ethnoforgery and Outsider Afrofuturism". Dancecult (Griffith University ePress) 5 (2): 89–90. doi:10.12801/1947-5403.2013.05.02.05. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
Alondra Nelson (Interviewee) (2010). Afrofuturism (Youtube).
Nelson, Alondra (2002). "Introduction: Future Texts". Social Text: Special Issue on Afrofuturism 20 (2): 1–15. doi:10.1215/01642472-20-2_71-1. ISSN 1527-1951. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
Gonzales, Michael A. (1 October 2013). "[BLACK ALT] What Is Afrofuturism?". Ebony. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
Calveri, John (2010-09-02). "Janelle Monáe: A New Pioneer Of Afrofuturism". The Quietus. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
Barrow, Jerry L. (2009-04-14). "Janelle Monae’s Top 5 Sci-Fi Movies Of All Time". The Urban Daily: Beats, Buzz, & Lifestyle. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
Hayashi, William (2009-12-04). Discovery: Volume 1 of the Darkside Trilogy. Xlibris, Corp. ISBN 1441586946.
Hayashi, William (2013-10-21). Conception: Volume 2 of the Darkside Trilogy. XLIBRIS. ISBN 149310005X.
Hazel, Tempestt (2012-05-28). "Black To The Future Series: An Interview with Krista Franklin". The Chicago Arts Archive: A Sixty Inches from Center Project. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
Richardson, Jared. (2012) "Attack of the Boogeywoman: Visualizing Black Women's Grotesquerie in Afrofuturism." Art Papers Magazine 36. 6
Miller, D. Scott. "AfroSurreal Generation: AFROSURREAL MANIFESTO".
Eshun, Kodwo. "Further Considerations of Afrofuturism." CR: The New Centennial Review 3.2 (2003): 287-302. Web.
Syms,Martine. “The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto.” Rhizome.org. N.p., 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
rhizome.org/editorial/2013/dec/17/mundane-afrofuturist-manifesto/Further reading
Barr, Marleen S (2008). Afro-future females: Black writers chart science fiction's newest new-wave trajectory. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 9780814210789.
Bould, Mark and Rone Shavers, eds. (July 2007). "Special Issue on Afrofuturism". Science Fiction Studies 34 (2).
Dauphin, Gary. 2006. 'They Came Before the Matrix' (Afrofuturist Film)[dead link]
Dery, Mark (reposted 2002). "Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0". rumori mailing list. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
Dery, Mark (1994). "Black to the future: interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose". In Dery, Mark. Flame wars: the discourse of cyberculture. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822315407.
David, Mario (2007). "Afrofuturism and Post-Soul Possibility in Black Popular Music". African American Review 41 (4): 695–707. doi:10.2307/25426985.
DeFrantz, Thomas F. (2003). "Believe the Hype: Hype Williams and Afrofuturist Filmmaking". Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media 4. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
Eshun, Kodwo (1998). More brilliant than the sun: adventures in sonic fiction. Quartet Books. ISBN 9780704380257.
Eshun, Kodwo (2003). "Further Considerations of Afrofuturism". CR: The New Centennial Review 3 (2): 287–302. doi:10.1353/ncr.2003.0021. ISSN 1539-6630.
Francis, Reese. "What is Afrofuturism? (series)". Aker: Futuristically Ancient. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
Hicks, Cinqué (April 2004). "What is Afrofuturist Art?". Retrieved 15 January 2014.
Lewis, George E. (2008). "Special issue on Technology and Black Music in the Americas". Journal of the Society for American Music 2 (2).
Nelson, Alondra. "Afrofuturism: Past-Future Visions." Color Lines (Spring 2000): 34-37.
Nelson, Alondra, ed. (June 3, 2002). Afrofuturism: A Special Issue of Social Text. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822365457.
Rockeymoore, Mark A. (February 27, 2002). "What is Afrofuturism?". AuthorsDen. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
Weiner, Jonah (June 20, 2008). "Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III, and the Afronaut invasion.". Slate. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
Williams, Ben (2001). "Black Secret Technology: Detroit Techno and the Information Age". In Nelson et al. Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. NYU Press. pp. 154–176. ISBN 9780814736043.
Womack, Ytasha (2013-10-01). Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781613747964.
Yaszek, Lisa (2005). "An Afrofuturist Reading of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man". Rethinking History 9 (2-3): 297–313. doi:10.1080/13642520500149202. ISSN 1364-2529.
External links
The AfroFuturist Affair
AFROFUTURISM.net
Black Science Fiction Society
Daathrekh Publishing
Afro-Futurism
