On Afrofuturism + You're Invited to Our Virtual Chat on Kindred
We’re honoring Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction works by diving into her novel Kindred first published in 1979. Butler is known one to be one of the main creators of Afrofuturism, so this week I’m tapping into its significance for our readers who have never heard of the genre before.
You’re invited on February 28th at 4pm PST to join in on our virtual discussion of KINDRED. You can either register on Eventbrite or click that you’re attending on our Facebook invite. I will also be sending over a recap of our discussion for those who cannot attend, or prefer to read and analyze on your own time.
Defined by scholar Mark Dery in his 1993 essay, “Black to the Future,” Afrofuturism is a “speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture—and, more generally, African American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future.”
Prominent feminist Afrofuturistic figures that were around during Butler’s time publishing and writing KINDRED can be seen in X-men’s Storm who is a descendant of African priestesses and who has superhuman abilities to change the weather. She was first published in 1975 by white male creators which conveys how white male-dominated this sphere once was when Butler was writing. FUN FACT: Storm’s character was enthralled in a love story with one of the most arguably pivotal figures of Afrofuturism: Black Panther. It is said that Butler's intense first-person narration in KINDRED deliberately echoes the ex-slave memoirs she read before writing it. So, TBH, she really wasn’t looking to figures like STORM as her muse. She was more interested in how dynamics during slavery could pan out, and how it bodes for the future of progress in racial narratives in the 1970’s.
In an incredible article by Yes Magazine on How Black Women Are Reshaping Afrofuturism, author Jonita Davis writes that the “science fiction subgenre known for its utopian and liberation themes has become a vehicle for Black women artists [today].”
The subgenre is largely dominated by male narratives, Davis writes. But “now, the most popular names in Afrofuturism are women, and they seem to be reshaping the entire genre. Janelle Monae’s genre-transcending music tops the charts. Writers N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor and may soon be getting screen adaptations. Even the TV reimagining of the modern classic comic, Watchmen, had a plot cemented in racial justice, with Regina King’s portrayal anchoring the series.”
In 1975, Butler’s KINDRED told the radical reshaping of our main character’s own past in the 1800’s. In Kodwo’s Eshun’s essay on Further Considerations of Afrofuturism, he writes that “it has been necessary to assemble countermemories that contest the colonial archive, thereby situating the collective trauma of slavery as the founding moment of modernity.”
KINDRED is open for discussion on how it has shaped the subgenre as it lands us as readers on a plantation, forcing our main character to be entangled with the community and become a slave herself. “Afrofuturism’s first priority is to recognize that Africa increasingly exists as the object of futurist projection,” writes Eshun. It is in the body of our main character Dana that she is an object of future identity for the slaves and owners of the plantation.
I encourage you to join us on February 28th and come with your own analysis of how KINDRED has shaped YOUR understanding of the subgenre.
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ABOUT ALISSA
Why am I the fearless leader of a bookclub for Fembot? I am a trained media theorist and Armenian-American feminist, I have a bachelor’s degree in Women studies and English literature from the University of California, Riverside. My master’s is from New York University’s Steinhardt school of Media, Culture, and Communication. So this newsletter is kind of my jam.
I began Fembot as an online magazine five years ago. Fembot Magazine is a fully independent online magazine concerned with the need for diverse voices in intersectional feminism and social justice. By inviting marginalized folk to share their feelings with the world, the mission of the magazine is to create a diverse and safe online community of writers and creators. I aim to share with others a platform that ignites conversations and allows for diverse perspectives.
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