SPACES mounts the first exhibition in Ohio to explore the idea of Afrofuturism, the subculture that deals
with the interplay between time, technology, race and culture in the USA. Seventeen artists, from both historical and future viewpoints, tackle the impact of technology on the physical, social and spiritual lives
of black people.

From science fiction to film and cultural exploration, the artists create work in painting, video and video
games, sound installation, spoken word, sculpture, cinema and drawings. Conceived by The Soap Factory
and Obsidian Arts in Minneapolis, the exhibition Afrofuturism was originally curated by Minneapolis-based
artist Ernest Arthur Bryant III and Suzanne Roberts of Obsidian Arts. SPACES introduced six northeast-Ohio artists into the exhibition.

Artists in the exhibition include:

What is Afrofuturism?

Afrofuturism is an African-American and African diaspora subculture whose thinkers and artists see technology and science-fiction
as a means of exploring the black experience and finding new strategies to overcome racism and classism. The term Afrofuturism was first used by Mark Dery in his book Flame Wars (Duke University Press, 1993) to describe a concept of applying technology to cultural understanding for African-Americans. Specifically:

“Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture—and more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future—might for want of a better term, be called "Afro-futurism.”

Dr. Alondra Nelson, Assistant Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, describes it this way: “Afrofuturism means using the past in the future—not forgetting the past lives of Africans and African-Americans and our culture. It's an exploration of how scientific and technological innovation is changing in the face of black art and popular culture.”

The United States, since its very beginning, has been shaped by both its intimate and turbulent relationship with the peoples of Africa and a concurrent tension between the advance of technology and its impact of African-American culture.

Mark Dery contends: “Why do so few African-Americans write science fiction, a genre whose close encounters with the Other—the stranger in a strange land—would seem uniquely suited to the concerns of African-American novelists? …This is especially perplexing in light of the fact that African-Americans are, in a very real sense, the descendants of alien abductees. They inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen but no less impassable force fields of intolerance frustrate their movements; official histories undo what has been done to them; and technology, be it branding, forced sterilization, the Tuskegee experiment, or tasers, is too often brought to bear on black bodies.”

Afrofuturism.net

What is Afrofuturism? By Mark A. Rockeymoore

'Nawlins: an Afrofuturistic reconceptualization

Mark Dery: Black to the Future

Mark Dery: Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0

Thu Apr 27 6–8 pm COSE Arts Network Kickoff
Learn about COSE's new programs for artists and the arts
community.

Featuring new music and dance from Oberlin College.

Thu May 4 5–10 pm 20/30 Club Around Town
Join the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club for drinks and mingling.

Featuring new music and dance from Oberlin College.