View of Afrofuturism_ The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) _ Dancecult_ Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture.pdf

5/29/24, 2:35 PM View of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) | Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture  Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-F...

5/29/24, 2:35 PM View of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) | Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture  Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture Ytasha L. Womack Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-61374-796-4 (paperback) RRP: US $16.95 (paperback) tobias c. van Veen McGill University (Canada) Following upon her accessible and personable book documenting the transformation of “race” in the late 20th century African American context, Post-Black: How a New Generation is Redefining African American Identity (2010), Ytasha Womack has written a similarly enlightening and readable survey of Afrofuturism. Womack provides several useful definitions of Afrofuturism, notably as “an intersection of imagination, technology, the future, and liberation”, in which “Afrofuturists redefine culture and notions of blackness for today and the future” by combining “elements of science fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western beliefs” (9). With its first-person narrative, easy-going interview quotes from Afrofuturist artists, musicians, writers and scholars, overview of Afrofuturism’s scholarly history, artistic and musical traditions, and numerous references to past and contemporary Afrofuturist works, the book is particularly useful for first-comers and adherents alike, and will particularly do well as an introductory text at high school and undergraduate levels. Womack’s chapters are prefaced by full-page black-and-white comic-style artwork from John Jennings and James Marshall, an added touch that greatly aids in visualizing the futurist hybridity of black identity and technology. Unlike the requisite dryness of much scholarly work, Womack takes a conversational approach. Afrofuturism is viewed as a positive means to overcome barriers presented by systemic racism and socioeconomic inequality, not the least because the book is tied together by Womack’s narration of her own experiences in the field—from her days discovering other “AfroGeeks” as a university student to speaking at various exhibitions and conferences as the author of the Rayla 2212 series of science fiction novels. Her reflections lend a personal aura to her ongoing encounters with all the unusual suspects of Afrofuturism. The book’s concise and digestible chapters, grouped together by approach and media format, cover all the expected bases—science fiction literature, music, comics, film, music videos, black inventors and technologies— as well as a taste of the unexpected, including the cosmogony of the Dogon, the contemporary healing practices of Malidoma Somé in Africanist religion and ritual, D. Scot Miller’s Afrosurrealism manifesto, Afrofuturist curators and exhibition organisers including “The Afrofuturist Affair”, and a chapter devoted to “The Divine Feminine in Space” (a.k.a. women in Afrofuturism). Womack provides a basic overview of Afrofuturist media production and its artists as well as its outliers, fielding through the Afrodiasporic speculative and science fiction of Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany and Nalo Hopkinson, as well as Afrofuturist musical traditions from Sun Ra and Lee “Scratch” Perry to George Clinton, Grace Jones to Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe. In regards to speculative fiction, Womack (much to my delight) discusses African American literature of the 19th century as the forerunner to later 20th century developments, providing a summary of earlier authors including George S. Schuyler and Sutton E. Griggs while emphasizing how “the black visionaries of the past... used [speculative and proto-science fiction] as devices to articulate their issues and visions” (124). (These earlier references, as well as Womack’s passing attention to Africanist and Egyptian cosmogonies, suggest that there is still much work to be done in unearthing the deep roots of Afrofuturist approaches.) https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/view/392/402 1/2 5/29/24, 2:35 PM View of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Ytasha L. Womack) | Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/view/392/402 2/2