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| Credit: Pixabay.com |
This weekend saw the
release of the Black Panther movie which I plan to see Monday
(since that’s a holiday). That is, if I can find a copy of the 1970
issue, number 74, of Avengers that co-stars the African super
hero and read it by tomorrow. I just finished reading the previous
issue that I purchased a couple of weeks ago not knowing it was going
to be a two-parter. I don’t like to simultaneously watch a movie
and read a book (including comic book) involving the same character
since doing so causes me to confuse the storylines. But the movie,
Black Panther, is
perfect timing—February is Black History Month. It’s great to see
more science fiction stories featuring black characters, since the
genre has traditionally been very white.
There are a lot of
great African-American sci fi and fantasy writers and not just in
recent times. There are ones going as far back as, believe it or not,
the beginning of the 20th century with W.E.B. DuBois. Yes,
he wrote some science fiction! The movement known as Afrofuturism is bringing to light these
writers as well as new ones. If this term, “Afrofuturism”, is new
to you, here’s how I define it in this excerpt from a 2014 post:
Afrofuturism: I found out about this African science fiction
movement when I was looking at the website for a British convention
called Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder . . . . The con is featuring
an event there called “Inside Afrofuturism” which is a conference
of African science fiction writers, directors and other artists.
Afrofuturism is a movement by black people exploring and expressing
their race and heritage through science fiction and fantasy in all
mediums. Even though this term is unheard of by most people, the
movement has really been going on since the 1960s with Samuel
Delany’s work and Jazz/funk musician Sun Ra’s who actually did a
movie in the early ‘70s that I saw a clip of and seems really neat;
it’s called Space is the Place. What I feel is so great about
finding out about this literary and art movement is that it shows
that science fiction and fantasy is not really the all-white genre
that it’s been made to seem. . . .
Here are some more
links that discuss Afrofuturism:
“What Is Afrofuturism?” (From Ebony.com)
This is another earlier post here at the Fantastic Site where I
compare Martin Luther King’s vision of a nation of equality to the
visions of science fiction writers, particularly the optimistic
visions meant to benefit all people. But at the end of the post is
another list of links to articles about Afrofuturism that you will
find very informing and interesting. This list even includes an
article about the Black Panther’s utopic, high-tech home country of
Wakanda.
“The World of Cosplay Is Filled With Black Joy” (From the Huffington Post)
Even though the term “Afrofuturism” is not used in this article,
I believe the topic discussed is a very big part of the movement
since much cosplay involves science fiction and fantasy characters
and character creation. The writer, Talynn Kel, gives a really good
discussion about how some African-American science fiction/fantasy
fans identify with their love of the genre through costume design.
It’s a very lengthy article (which I haven’t even finished
reading yet) but perhaps rightfully so since it gives in-depth
information into how black cosplayers identify with speculative
fiction characters and depict them according to their own culture
through costuming.
Next time, I plan to
have for you a mini film review of It, which I just saw on DVD
a couple nights ago and thought was supernaturally super! If I see
the Black Panther movie before then, maybe I’ll give a mini
review of that as well.
Until then . . .
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