March 27-31 marks a week of activities about Afrofuturism, a contemporary arts movement connecting the musical, literary, and visual arts and combining elements of science fiction and speculative futurism, history, and fantasy with African and African diasporic cultures and political standpoints.
One of the highlights of the week will be a public reading by Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor, professor of creative writing and literature at the University of Buffalo, on Thursday, /3/30, at 6:30 pm, in the Lindsay Young Auditorium. Acclaimed author of speculative fiction ranging across literary modes, Professor Okorafor has been the recipient of Nebula and Hugo Awards, the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature, the Children’s Africana Book Award for Best Book for Young Readers, and an Amazon.com Best Book of the Year award. Professor Okorafor will give a talk titled “At Home” in which she talks about interstellar citizenship, the concept of home, the Nigerian-American experience, and how it’s all science fiction. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The second big event of the week is “The Futures of Afrofuturism” symposium on campus, featuring seven visiting speakers who will give papers about topics related to Afrofuturism and Africana diasporic arts today. The symposium schedule is attached; the symposium talks are open to all UT faculty, staff, and graduate students.
The complete Afrofuturism Program is available online.
Here are some additional highlights of AFROFUTURISM WEEK:
March 27-31
Afrofuturism Book Exhibit
Hodges Library, 2nd Floor
Afrofuturism Research Guide
UT Libraries online
Monday, March 27, 6:30-9:00 pm
Film Showings and Discussion: John Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History and Terence Nance’s An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
Frieson Black Cultural Center
(open to all UT faculty, staff, and students)
Tuesday, March 28, 6:30-8 pm
Book Discussion of Octavia Butler’s Kindred
“Is History Past? American Slavery and Our Future”
Professor Michelle Commander, UT Department of English
East Tennessee History Center, 601 Gay Street
(Free and open to the public)
Wednesday, March 29, 11 am-3 pm
#UTKFutures Event
Hodges Library, 2nd Floor
Thursday, March 30
Student poster display: Literary Futurisms
Hodges Library
Thursday, March 30 and Friday, March 31
“The Futures of Afrofuturism” SYMPOSIUM
Haslam Business Building, West Wing (Room 440) (open to UT faculty, staff, and graduate students)
Thursday, March 30
6:30 pm, Lindsay Young Auditorium
“At Home”: A talk by writer Nnedi Okorafor
(a free lecture open to the public)