Lecture
Saturday, Jan 23, 2016, 11:00 AM

Ytasha Womack

Chicago

Afrofuturism. Time, Memory, Femininity and Identity in Film

Afrofuturism is both a cultural aesthetic and mode of self‐healing that looks at the future and alternate realities through a black cultural lens. Afrofuturism is also an intersection between black culture, technology, the imagination, liberation and mysticism. Claiming space for the imagination is a key cornerstone in the work of Afrofuturists. In film, people of the African continent and of African descent are using science fiction to claim space for agency and creation. Artists are claiming their future now and futures in a language that challenges notions of time, space and memory. They are reearthing lost histories of the past while asserting their futures and contributions to humanity in a narrative that transforms their experience of today.

Ytasha L. Womack is an award winning author, filmmaker, dancer and innovator. She is author of the books Afrofuturism. The World of Black Sci Fi & Fantasy Culture (2013); Rayla 2212 (2013); Post Black. How a New Generation is Redefining African American Identity (2010) and edited the anthology Beats, Rhymes and Life. What We Love & Hate about Hip Hop (2007). Her latest film, the science fiction feature BAR STAR CITY will be released in 2016.

 
Vortrag, Samstag, 23.1., 11.00 (Sektion 4: Gesellschaft der Zukunft)