In 2018, Pittsburgh artist Alisha Wormsley created and posted what many considered to be a “controversial” billboard in the East Liberty neighborhood of the city. The billboard contained a single sentence that read: “There are black people in the future.” The simple statement was a profound one; in the context of a gentrifying neighborhood where black residents were being rapidly displaced, the billboard critiqued community planning strategies that expunge and erase black communities. But more than a critique, the billboard was also indicative of a particular artistic practice, mode of study and social engagement that has come to be known as “Afrofuturism.” In this episode, Secunda is joined by De'Anna Daniels, Jaison Oliver, and Dr. Jessica Davenport to explore Afrofuturism and its creative and cultural possibilities for community-building.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For more on Wormsley, click here.
Drexciya
Adrienne Maree Brown - Octavia's Brood
Rhiana Gunn Wright - New Consensus Green New Deal
The Intercept - A message From the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
How It Feels to Be A Colored Me - Zora Neale Hurston
Aaron Douglas - Painter
The Comet - W. E. B. DuBois
Zone 1, Underground Railroad, Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments - Saidiya Hartman
John Jennings
Kenitra Brooks
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Harriet Jacobs
Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler
Jessi Jumanji - Artist
Alondra Nelson - Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination
Black Panther
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The Relay is brought to you by Milieu Media Group, in association with Project Curate. Artwork designed by Heather Hale.
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