Afrofuturismo: testi, musica, arte, esperienze

In 2000, the publication of Dark Matter, edited by Sheree R. Thomas, marked a pivotal moment in the debate on the role of African American writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Moving from Thomas’s anthology, this essay explores the concept of “alienness” by bringing to the surface fertile connections between multimedia and multi-sensorial artistic practices that are part of the complex afro-futurist movement. From Paul Gilroy’s notion of “Black Atlantic” to W.E.B. Du Bois’s short story “The Comet”; from Octavia E. Butler’s novels to Afrika Bambaataa’s hip hop; from Vodou in Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring to the collaboration between the techno music group Clipping and Rivers Salomon; from the artistvideomaker-photographer Arthur Jafa to Greg Tate’s thoughts on pop music, the  boundaries between artistic genres are as liquid as the aquatic metaphors that many of them propose. The influences, contrasts and collaborations amongst these creative figures cut across time and space by means of writing and painting, recovering and reworking myths, editing music clips and television footage, singing and dancing. These artists draw from the past, searching for a common origin and project themselves into the possibilities of a techno-future with multiple visions, aware that one does not create to propose solutions but rather to provoke emotions and bring up change.