From my youth, I have been an avid reader and watcher of cartoons/comicbook animation. After a successful career in academia, I am now indulging my passion for the speculative, developing this site as an outlet for sharing thoughts on various SciFi/Speculative Fiction topics. My hope is to share my intrigue, frustrations, and hopes for African-descended characters and stories in various forms of popular culture (which might include newly released films/albums/concerts/novels/visual artists as well as new, old, and/or revamped action heroes/comicbook characters).
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Beginnings of Black Speculative Fiction (SF): |
Key Features of Black SF: |
Arguably, threads of the speculative are woven throughout African Diasporic literature. From religious deities and spiritual faith traditions, to conjuring tales, magical realism, literal or figurative hauntings, and plots that disrupt or strive to capture atemporal timelines, African-descended writers have framed Speculative Fiction (SF) long before Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler were recognized for their Science Fiction. Important authors, it is unquestionable that they blazed a trail that many have followed, not only in literature but, certainly, now in film, music, and the visual arts.
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*Leading characters are people of African-descent.
*Diverse communities are not only multiethnic but include inter-species relationships. *Traditional constructions of gender/sexuality are dismantled. *Linear time is non-existence or distablized. *Oftentimes, there are revisionist elements that offer a retelling of what has otherwise been an obfuscated delineation of Black History. |
Above artists are pivotal figures shaping visual and/or written depictions of Black women/girls in Speculative Fiction:
Octavia Butler (top); Ava DuVernay, Nalo Hopkinson, Andrea Hairston, Nia DaCosta (first row-left to right); Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jemison, Toni Morrison (second row-left to right); Jenny Lumet, Misha Green, Aisha Tyler, Ruth Carter, and Hanelle M. Culpepper (third row-left to right). |