#featuredbadass

[theafrofuturist]

IN THE NEWS

“Celebrating Octavia Butler: A Visionary Among Futurists”

by Emanuella Grinberg

.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/living/octavia-butler-radio-imagination-feat/index.html

[theafrofuturist]

IN THE NEWS

I attended the opening of Huntington Library and Clockshop LA’s launch for Radio Imagination, a year-long series of events commemorating the work and life of Octavia E. Butler.  Among many luminaries and moving performances, the brilliant Rasheedah Phillips of The Afrofuturist Affair, Philadelphia, led us in a time-space-travel exercise that blew my mind.  The energy of Octavia has been flowing in such a magnificent and mystical way, and on this New Moon, I have set intentions and visions in motion that I know will shape the rest of my life in a powerful way. 

Sending much love to all of the friends and comrades with whom I was able to reconnect, envision, and celebrate.  California dreamin’...

Check out these events online and in person, if you’re in LA!

Clockshop presents Radio Imagination

Launch party for a year-long celebration and commemoration of Octavia Butler:

Radio Imagination artists and writers will conduct first-hand research in Butler’s archive at the Huntington Library and create new work based on their research. New poetry and creative nonfiction by Tisa Bryant, Lynell George, Robin Coste Lewis, andFred Moten will premiere at a public reading event. New contemporary artworks byLaylah Ali, Courtesy the Artists (Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade), Lauren Halsey, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Connie Samaras, and Cauleen Smith will be presented at an exhibition at Armory Center for the Arts (October 1, 2016–January 7, 2017).

http://clockshop.org/project/octavia-e-butler/

[theafrofuturist]

LITERATURE

Making Wolf

Tade Thompson

Winner of 2016 Golden Tentacle from The Kitschies, the prize for progressive, intelligent, and entertaining literature with a speculative element

[theafrofuturist]

FEATURED BADASS

These handwritten notes from the inside cover of Octavia Butler’s notebook have been circulating and arrived in my inbox right on time!  What a blessing from the universe and so inspiring to see Butler’s notes-to-self, the self-encouragement and mantras, like many of us do.  Right here is why I have always seen Afro-Futurism and taught Afro-Futurism as a methodology of liberation, as an intentional manifestation.  

Erykah Badu writes about the power of the word, of spelling as an act of creating a spell of words.  

I am so full right now with this, so inspired and uplifted.  Thank you, Octavia E. Butler, for your brilliance that continues to fuel our greatest dreams.

[theafrofuturist]

IN THE NEWS

Thrilled to be included in Florence Okoye of @Afrofutures_UK’s January 2016 Afrofuturism series on How We Get To Next in an article on music and sound, “Space is the Place: A Crash Course in the Sounds of Afrofuturism - Where the social, political, and technological meet in the music.”

http://denenge.net/soundscapes

[theafrofuturist]

IN THE NEWS

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be a featured interviewee by Florence Okoye of @Afrofutures_UK for her Afrofuturism series at How We Get To Next.  The interview airs next week. More information will be forthcoming.

https://howwegettonext.com/

[theafrofuturist]

FEATURED BADASS

Check out the surreal work of Californian artist Paul Lewin. The artist (who was born in Jamaica and moved to the US as a child) is recognised for his fusion of science-fiction and  Afro-Caribbean folklore - most of his work featuring ancient masks, tribal motifs, and queenly Black women. Lewin states that he likes to "mix traditional Caribbean and African motifs with surreal visions of nature and the ancestry that surrounds us daily." Explore his fantastical work, below.