The term “Afrofuturism” was coined in the early 90s by Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future” as a way to put language to the possible futures and nods to science that were popping up in works by visual artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, musicians like George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix and, of course, novels by Octavia Butler, who seamlessly wrote 40 years ago about the future in a way that feels like deep past, as well as very much our present.īut the tenets of Afrofuturism began long before it had a name. Addisonįortunately, many Black authors like Addison and Holland, along with visual artists, musicians, designers, and activists, have long learned to zip into the cloak of art we now call Afrofuturism (also kindred to Black Speculative Arts) to imagine possible futures that embrace truly liberated Black bodies and stories. Addison put it succinctly: “It is human to see Self in the future, but being Black in America means fighting to be human, and being erased from history, the present and the future.” Linda D. In a recent email exchange, author and poet Linda D. “Or if they do,” he said, “they’re stuck down in the engine room they’re not in charge of anything … or they’re the nerdy scientist left behind in service of the white protagonist’s story.” People of color “don’t show up in the future” in the hundreds of years of science fiction and fantasy arts writing. Holland, a native of Memphis, pointed out at a March 10 panel for Dillard University that this is one reason we need Afrofuturism. Specifically, in futuristic arts and science fiction - mostly dominated by white males - authors often neglect to see marginalized populations as a part of the future at all.īestselling nonfiction author and novelist Jesse J. It’s easy to tout platitudes of inclusion in the present, but even many imagined futures continue to place the current dominant culture in the foreground.

But so many people of African heritage had their homes and identities colonized, impacting how we are seen and how we see ourselves throughout history. I was seen by the big kids.īeing seen is, perhaps, one of the most spectacular of powers. Or maybe it didn’t actually work, but in my childhood memory I felt faster, stronger. What does any self-respecting 5-year-old do in this situation but put on her superpowers? I would physically step into an invisible suit that zipped up from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. That’s only if they noticed me or let me play at all. In playing Red Rover, I was invariably the last selected to be on a team and the first the opposite team would call over, knowing I wouldn’t break through. So it was always little wimpy me surrounded by her big kid friends.

Younger than my sister and not yet in school, I didn’t yet have a large community of friends who would come over to play at our house.

The Invisibles by Jesse J. Holland