Resources
Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction by Call Number: YRL; PS374.N4 C37 2016ISBN: 9780816678952Date: 2016-02-29In Speculative Blackness, André M. Carrington analyzes the highly racialized genre of speculative fiction--including science fiction, fantasy, and utopian works, along with their fan cultures--to illustrate the relationship between genre conventions in media and the meanings ascribed to blackness in the popular imagination.
Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Call Number: YRL; PN3433.5 .W66 2013ISBN: 9781613747964Date: 2013-10-01Author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book's topics range from the "alien" experience of blacks in America to the "wake up" cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.
Afrofuturism: A History of Black Future by Call Number: YRL; CB235 .A348 2023ISBN: 9781588347404Date: 2023-03-21This timely and gorgeously illustrated companion book to an exciting Smithsonian exhibition explores the power of Afrofuturism to reclaim the past and reimagine Black futures. Afrofuturism- A History of Black Futures explores the evolving and exhilarating concept of Afrofuturism, a lens used to imagine a more empowering future for the Black community through music, art, and speculative fiction. Sumptuous, beautifully designed spreads feature 100 gorgeous illustrations of objects and images that reflect Black identity, agency, creativity, and hope, including- T'Challa's suit from Black Panther, Octavia Butler's typewriter, Uhura's outfit from Star Trek, Sun Ra's space harp, costumes from Broadway's The Wiz, handwritten lyrics by Jimi Hendrix, and Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid dress.
Afrofuturism 2. 0 by Call Number: YRL; CB235 .A35 2016ISBN: 9781498510523Date: 2017-07-14Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astroblackness represents a transition from previous ideas related to afrofuturism that were formed in the late 20th century around issues of the digital divide, music and literature. Afrofuturism 2.0 expands and broadens the discussion around the concept to include religion, architecture, communications, visual art, philosophy and reflects its current growth as an emerging global Pan African creative phenomenon.
Africanfuturism : African imaginings of other times, spaces, and worlds by 
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Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780821441268Date: 2024-02-27. This book offers an introduction to Africanfuturism--a body of African speculative works that is distinguishable from, albeit related to, US-based Afrofuturism. This book highlights twenty-first-century film, video, painting, sculpture, photography, tapestry, novels, short stories, comic books, song lyrics, and architecture by African creatives of different nationalities, races, ethnicities, genders, and generations.
Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Call Number: Arts Library ; PN1995.9.S26 N36 2008ISBN: 9780292717459Date: 2008-03-01Science fiction film offers its viewers many pleasures, not least of which is the possibility of imagining other worlds in which very different forms of society exist. Not surprisingly, however, these alternative worlds often become spaces in which filmmakers and film audiences can explore issues of concern in our own society. Through an analysis of over thirty canonic science fiction (SF) films, including Logan's Run, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Gattaca, and Minority Report, Black Space offers a thorough-going investigation of how SF film since the 1950s has dealt with the issue of race and specifically with the representation of blackness.
"Future Rhythms in Afrofuturist Films" in Black Cinema and Visual Culture by ISBN: 9781003079682Date: 2023-03-21This essay explores concepts of Afrofuturism in film as a way of looking at future and alternate realities through Black cultural lenses. This essay also examines how Afrofuturism intersects with Black cultures, the imagination, technology, liberation, and mysticism as an aesthetic, method, and practice all in one.
- Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2018)
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- Yeelen (dir. Souleymane Cissé, 1987)
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- Born in Flames (dir. Lizzie Borden, 1983)
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- Neptune Frost (dir. Anisia Uzeyman & Saul Williams, 2021)
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- Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer (dir. Andrew Honoho, Chuck Lightning, Lacey Duke, Alan Ferguson, Emma Westernberg, 2018)
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- Expanding Spaces: Examining the Landscape of Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and Africanjujuism in Hollywood / by Nicholas Nathaniel Kweku-Egyir Simons
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Thesis (M.A.) -- University of California, Los Angeles, 2021. - The Future is Now: The Power and Promise of Afrofuturism / by Sidney Blaylock, Jr
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Dissertation (Ph.D) -- Middle Tennessee State University, 2023. - The Great Space Race(ism): How Science Fiction Predicted the Future--and How Afrofuturism Could Negate It / by Aliyah Gabriell Symes
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Thesis (M.A.) -- University of California, Los Angeles, 2022. - 'Space is the Place:' Afrofuturism in Black Popular Music / by Tamyka Jordon-Conlin
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Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Louisiana State University, 2022. - Black Cyborgs: Blackness Narratives in Technology, Speculative Fiction, and Digital Cultures / by Caitlin Gunn
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Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- University of Minnesota, 2020. - Some Formal Remarks Toward a Teory of Afrofuturism: Designing Liberation Technologies in Black Speculative Fiction / by Clinton R. Fluker
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Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Emory University, 2017.
- Through the African American Lens: Afrofuturism: The Origin Story – DiscussionIn support of NMAAHC’s newest exhibition, Afrofuturism - A History of Black Futures, the public programs department will present the Afrofuturism: The Origin Story documentary produced by the Smithsonian Channel. This film features insights from Kevin Strait, NMAAHC curator of the Afrofuturism exhibition, and contributor to its companion collection of essays.
- Far Beyond the Stars: The Framing of Blackness in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine / by Lisa Doris Alexander
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The journal of popular film and television, 2016-07, Vol.44 (3), p.150-158 - African Cyborgs: Females and Feminists in African Science Fiction Film / by Lizelle Bisschoff
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Interventions (London, England), 2020-07, Vol.22 (5), p.606-623 - Afrofuturism, Power, and Marvel Comics's Black Panther / by Tim Posada
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Journal of popular culture, 2019-08, Vol.52 (4), p.910-930 - Reframing the post-apocalypse in Black British film: the dystopian Afrofuturism of Welcome II the Terrordome and Shank / by Felipe Espinoza Garrido
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Critical studies in media communication, 2020-08, Vol.37 (4), p.310-323, Article 310 - Monad, Database, Remix: Manners of Unfolding in The Last Angel of History / by Laura Marks
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Black camera : the newsletter of the Black Film Center/Archives, 2015-03, Vol.6 (2), p.112-134, Article 112
The Art of Ruth E. Carter by Call Number: Arts Library ; TT505.C3757 A3 2023; Also Available OnlineISBN: 9781797203065Date: 2023-05-23Ruth E. Carter is a living legend of costume design. For three decades, she has shaped the story of the Black experience on screen--from the '80s streetwear of Do the Right Thing to the royal regalia of Coming 2 America. Her work on Marvel's Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever not only brought Afrofuturism to the mainstream, but also made her the first Black winner of an Oscar in costume design and the first Black woman to win two Academy Awards in any category.
Afrofuturism in Black Panther by ISBN: 9781793623577Date: 2021-08-30Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-making of Blackness, through an interdisciplinary and intersectional analysis of Black Panther, discusses the importance of superheroes and the ways in which they are especially important to Black fans. Contributors to this collection approach Black Panther not only as a film, but also as Afrofuturist imaginings of an African nation untouched by colonialism and antiblack racism: the film is a map to alternate states of being, an introduction to the African Diaspora, a treatise on liberation and racial justice, and an examination of identity.
Design in a Frame of Emotion by Call Number: Arts Library; PN2096.B43 A5 2020ISBN: 9783956795596Date: 2021-02-02A conversation about design, filmmaking, Afrofuturism, world-building, and other topics with Hannah Beachler, Academy-Award-winning production designer of Black Panther. Hannah Beachler is known as an award-winning production designer, but she tells an audience that she considers herself to be more of a story designer.
Selected Films on Kanopy
Neptune Frost (dir. Anisia Uzeyman & Saul Williams, 2021)
Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has previously explored in his work.
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Yeelen (dir. Souleymane Cissé, 1987)
This adaptation of an ancient oral legend from Mali, is one the most acclaimed and widely seen African films ever made. An Oedipal story mixed with magic, Yeelen is as visually stunning as anything from Hollywood.
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Born in Flames (dir. Lizzie Borden, 1983)
The movie that rocked the foundations of the early Indie film world, this provocative, thrilling and still-relevant classic is a comic fantasy of female rebellion set in America ten years after the Second American Revolution.
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
A visually stunning story of a young woman named Jane 57821 (Janelle Monáe), who is living in a totalitarian near-future society where citizens are referred to as “computers.” A timely and poignant Emotion Picture, Dirty Computer explores humanity and what truly happens to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness when mind and machines merge, and when the government chooses fear over freedom.
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.