AFROFUTURISM
and the Black Speculative Arts
Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Arts November 8, 2020 Part 2
A THREE PART SERIES (PART 2) SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2020
2pm PST 3pm MT 4pm CST 5pm EST
AN ONLINE VIRTUAL EVENT
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Free to the Public
PRESS RELEASE
Afrofuturism has been described as intersectional, non-linear, fluid, and a blending of the future, the past, and the present to create a mystical union of Blackness itself. It ventures into the territory of dimensional and interdimensional realities existing within and around what we assume to be reality.
The Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts virtual series takes place on October 11, November 8, and December 13, the second Sundays of each month at 2pm (PST), 3pm (MT), 4pm (CST), and 5pm (EST).The October and November portions of the series are roundtable discussions, while the December program is the reading of poetry of an Afrofuturist immersion and is curated. The participants represent cultural and literary ambassadors discussing their work and what it means to be an Afrofuturist as well as how the Black Speculative Arts are showcased throughout the African Diaspora.
To register in advance for this program, please click onto: ZOOM. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The November 8th program will include Samuel Delany, the winner of four Nebula awards and two Hugo Awards for his excellence in Science Fiction. Delany was inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002. Delany is the author of memoirs, literary criticism, and fiction including Captives of the Flame (1963), Dhalgren (1973), Starboard Wine (1984), and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders (2012); and afrofuturist and rheumatologist Glenn Parris whose novel Dragon’s Heir will be republished by Outland Entertainment in 2021; and Eugene Redmond, the Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, an academic, and the editor of Knees of a Natural Man: The Selected Poetry of Henry Dumas (October 2020); and Hope Wabuke, a poet, writer, and assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who writes literary and cultural criticism for NPR; and Avotcja, the award-winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for Betty Carter in New York City and uses Afrofuturistic themes in her writings and performances; and Dr. Ayana Jamieson, the founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network to preserve and promote research and scholarship on one of the preeminent science fiction and fantasy writers of the 20th century; and finally, Dr. Grace Gipson. a Black future feminist/pop culture scholar whose research explores Black popular culture, digital humanities, representations of race and gender within comic books, Afrofuturism, and race and new media.
Moderator
Darrell Stover
Darrell “SCIPOET”
Darrell is a cultural historian, science communicator and performance poet with the DNA of a trickster. His career life has always been an intersection of science and art sifted through history with an emphasis on community and individual empowerment through the same. He is on the faculty at NC State University where he teaches “Black Popular Culture: From the Blues to Afrofuturism” and “Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society.”
What most don't know is he studied microbiology and American Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park and acquired his Master of Arts degree in Creative Non-Fiction Writing from Johns Hopkins University. He engaged in the immunogenetic characterization of retroviruses at the National Cancer Institute and was a science editor for 15 years. He served as program director at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, NC and the North Carolina Humanities Council. He found and directed the Spoken Word Performance Poetry Ensemble in Washington, DC in 1988.
He has been published in the Washington Post, the Independent Weekly, Gargoyle, the Hip Hop Tree and in several poetry anthologies. His latest book of poetry is Somewhere Deep Down When. His more recent public programs have been the performance/lecture “Other Wonder: Black Superheroes through Time,” “The Natural History of Afrofuturia” and the curation of a series on the cultural significance of the “Black Panther” film featuring a panel discussion on the science and technology represented on screen.
His presentation of "Dream STEAM: Afrofuturist Dances with the Sciences" at the "Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurities” conference held at UNC-Chapel Hill expounded on the use of biological science in African diasporic speculative fiction.
AFROFUTURISM Trailer Part 2
Panelist
Samuel Delany
In 2016, Samuel R. Delany was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. He is the author of Babel-17, Nova, Dhalgren, Dark Reflections, Atlantis: Three Tales, the Return to Nevèrÿon series, an autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water, and the paired essays Times Square Red / Times Square Blue.
Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award for 2008, and in 2015 he won the Nicolas Guillén Award for Philosophical Literature, and in 1997 the Kessler Award for LGBTQ Studies.
As well, he has won four Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and two Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Convention. In 2013, he was made a Grand Master of Science Fiction, following in the steps of Asimov, Heinlein, and Le Guin.
As e-books, paperbacks, or audiobooks, his works are available through his website at: www.samueldelany.com.
Panelist
Glenn Parris
A board-certified rheumatologist, author Glenn Parris has practiced medicine in the Northeast Atlanta suburbs for more than 25 years. He’s been writing for nearly that long. Originally from New York City, Parris migrated south to escape the cold and snow and fell in love with Southern charm and Carla, his wife of 27 years.
He now writes cross-genre books in medical mystery, Afrofuturism, science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. The Renaissance of Aspirin, a Jack Wheaton medical mystery, was his debut novel. Also look for Unbitten: A Vampire Dream for Halloween! Dr. Parris’s short story "The Tooth Fairies: Quest for Tear Haven" is now available in the Outland Entertainment new faerie stories anthology,Where the Veil is Thin, edited by Alana Joli Abbot and Cerece Rennie Murphy.
Panelist
Eugene B Redmond
Eugene B. Redmond, emeritus professor of English and Black Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was named Poet Laureate of East St. Louis (Illinois) in 1976, the year Doubleday released his critical history, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry. Earlier, as a Teacher-Counselor and Poet-in-Residence at SIU's Experiment in Higher Education (1967-69), his colleagues included Katherine Dunham and Henry Dumas (1934-1968). Also, during the 1960s and 1970s, he helped found several Black Studies Programs and weekly newspapers, including the East St. Louis Monitor for which he wrote a weekly column and the entire editorial page for six years.
As literary executor of Dumas's estate, and with assistance from Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka, Redmond edited several posthumously published volumes of his friend's writings. These included Ark of Bones (short fiction), Knees of a Natural Man (poetry), Jonoah and the Green Stone(novel) and Echo Tree (collected short fiction).
Redmond was Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence in Pan African/Ethnic Studies at California State University-Sacramento from 1970-85. While at CSUS hewon a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and an Outstanding Faculty Research/Teaching Award; and lectured at universities in the U.S., Africa, and Europe.
In 1986, East St. Louisans created the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club in his honor. The Club turned 34 in 2020. Winner of two American Book Awards, Redmond's most recent release, after authoring/editing more than 40 collections of diverse writings, is Arkansippi Memwars: Poetry, Prose & Folklore 1962-2012 (Third World Press). In September of 2019, he read poetry at the National Museum of African American History Culture during the 25thAnniversary of the Furious Flower Poetry Center.
Having received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from SIUE in 2008, he witnessed the grand opening of the Eugene B. Redmond Collection and Learning Center in the Elijah P. Lovejoy Library in October of 2015. The Center maintains hundreds of thousands of awards, manuscripts, photos, letters, newspapers, books, journals, magazines, brochures, flyers, playbills, art works, cloth memorabilia, and syllabi from 60 years of writing, teaching, community organizing and travels.
Panelist
Avotcja
Avotcja
Poet/Playwright/Multi-percussionist/Photographer/Teacher
Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe. She’s an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist. She’s a popular Bay Area DJ & Radio Personality & leader of the group “Avotcja & Modúpue” (The Bay Area Blues Society’s Jazz Group Of The Year in 2005 & 2010), facilitates the longest running Multi-lingual Poetry Series in Oakland, CA.
Avotcja teaches Creative Writing & Drama & is a proud member of DAMO (Disability Advocates Of Minorities Org.), PEN Oakland, alumni of California Poets In The Schools & is an ASCAP recording artist. Her latest Book is “With Every Step I Take” (Taurean Horn).
Panelist
Hope Wabuke
Hope Wabuke is a Ugandan American poet, essayist, and writer. She is the author of the chapbooks her, The Leaving, and Movement No.1: Trains and has published widely in various magazines, among them The Guardian, The Root, Los Angeles Review of Books, NPR, The Sun Literary Journal, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, The Daily Beast, Ms. Magazine online, Lit Hub, Ozy, Salon, Gawker, The Hairpin, Dame, The North American Review, Salamander Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. She writes literary and cultural criticism for NPR.
Hope has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Critics Circle, The New York Times Foundation, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women Writers, Cave Canem, the Awesome Foundation, Yale University’s THREAD Writer’s Program, and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA).
Hope is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a former contributing editor for The Root, where she originated a column on African diasporic literature, and a founding board member and former Media & Communications Director for the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction.
Panelist
Ayana Jamieson
Dr. Ayana Jamieson founded the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network to preserve and promote research and scholarship on one of the preeminent science fiction and fantasy writers of the 20th century. Ayana Jamieson is currently a faculty member at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona in the Ethnic and Women’s Studies Department.
Panelist
Grace Gipson
Grace D. Gipson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA).
As a Black future feminist/pop culture scholar, Dr. Gipson's area of research interest centers on black popular culture, digital humanities, representations of race and gender within comic books, Afrofuturism, and race and new media. Grace's work has been featured in various publications and book chapters in such outlets as Black Perspectives, Huffington Post, NPR.org, Quality Comix and Richmond-Times Dispatch.
Outside the classroom, you can find Grace collecting comic books and stamps on her international travel discoveries, participating as part of the #BlackComicsChat podcast crew and giving back to the community through a myriad of projects and organizations. You can also follow her on Twitter @GBreezy20.
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