So, What IS Afrofuturism?

Words and expressions can have a heyday. They can be buzzworthy. Extra popular. Used frequently and with special emphasis.

In recent years, but especially in 2021 into 2022, the term “Afrofuturism” has garnered a lot of press in the media. It has found its way into discussions of music, fine and visual art, dance, museum exhibitions, comic books, and much more.

Clive Gillinson of Carnegie Hall states that “it’s been exciting to see how Afrofuturism embraces such a diverse array of art forms and the intrinsic role it plays in pop culture.” In fact, Carnegie Hall is presenting a festival dedicated to Afrofuturism, “the thriving aesthetic and cultural movement that looks to the future through a Black cultural lens” and bringing together not just art, music and science fiction but also politics and technology. It certainly is an ambitious field. described in that manner.

A musician who is often cited as a pioneer in Afrofuturism is the late Sun Ra, whose jazz and writings touched upon the past, present and hopes for the future. His jazz, often complicated and avant garde in style, was enhanced by the spacey outfits and accessories that he and his band (and it was quite often a very large band) wore. One of his most famous albums is “Space Is the Place”, a phrase repeated over and over in the title song, and the effect is of an African American musical genre mixed with sci-fi and new-age delight.

But Sun Ra himself didn’t coin the term Afrofuturism; it was actually coined in 1993 by writer Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future” and can be viewed as a philosophy of science and history, as synthesized by peoples of African descent. It also brings into play alternate and speculative history, magic, and crossing back and forth between ages in time.

A prominent entry into the Afrofuturism canon is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s period room “Before Yesterday We Could Fly.” The Met describes Afrofuturism as “a transdisciplinary creative mode that centers Black imagination, excellence, and self-determination” which is also meant to be a construction. A possibility. An imagined home filled with a wide variety of past, present and future items linked to the African American and African communities.

Is Afrofuturism akin to a wide-ranging Comic Con, devoted to many things African and African Diaspora? Is it a movement that will continue to evolve and grow, or will other terms and lenses become popular so that Afrofuturism is viewed as passe? Will it endure? Will it be disputed and turned upside down?