Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century

Description

In Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century, eminent contributors pay tribute to Afrofuturism as a powerful and evolving aesthetic practice that communicates the experience of science, technology, and race across centuries, continents, and cultures. While Ryan Coogler and Janelle Monáe may have helped bring the genre into contemporary pop consciousness, it in fact extends back to the writing of eighteenth-century poet Phyllis Wheatley and has continued in the work of Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, N. K. Jemisin, and many others. In examining this heritage, contributors in this volume question generic boundaries, recover lost artists and introduce new ones, and explore how the meteoric rise of a new, pan-African speculative literary tradition may or may not connect with Afrofuturism. Additionally, the editors have marshaled some of today’s most exciting writers for a roundtable discussion of the genre: Bill Campbell, Minister Faust, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Chinelo Onwualu, Nisi Shawl, and Nick Wood. Pioneering author and editor Sheree R. Thomas limns how black women have led new developments in contemporary Afrofuturism, and artist Stacey Robinson’s illustrations orient readers to the spirited themes of this enduring and consequential literary tradition. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Imagining Futures in Full Color • Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek PART ONE: AFROFUTURISM NOW 1 Author Roundtable on Afrofuturism • Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek 2 Dangerous Muses: Black Women Writers Creating at the Forefront of Afrofuturism • Sheree R. Thomas PART TWO: AFROFUTURISM IN LITERARY HISTORY 3 This Time for Africa! Afrofuturism as Alternate (American) History • De Witt Douglas Kilgore 4 Middle Age, Mer People, and the Middle Passage: Nalo Hopkinson’s Afrofuturist Journeying in The New Moon’s Arms • Gina Wisker 5 Young Adult Afrofuturism • Rebecca Holden PART THREE: AFROFUTURISM IN CULTURAL HISTORY 6 Space/Race: Recovering John M. Faucette • Mark Bould 7 Runoff: Afroaquanauts in Landscapes of Sacrifice • Elizabeth A. Wheeler 8 Black Futures Matter: Afrofuturism and Geontology in N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy • Lisa Dowdall PART FOUR: AFROFUTURISM AND AFRICA 9 We Are Terror Itself: Wakanda as Nation • Gerry Canavan 10 Global Afrofuturist Ecologies • Jerome Winter 11 “You Can’t Go Home Again”: Deji Bryce Olukotun’s Nigerians in Space, Science Fiction, and Global Interdependence • Marleen S. Barr 12 Faster than Before: Science Fiction in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard • Nedine Moonsamy Coda: Wokeness and Afrofuturism • Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek List of Contributors Index