Michigan State University Museum

Detroit writer and activist Adrienne Maree Brown pointed out that the experience of Black Americans, is by definition, a story of science fiction. Enslaved ancestors had to dream up a Black future that was unlike anything they experienced.

One of the most vital places for experimentation for science fiction and fantasy is in the comics. A new virtual exhibition at the Michigan State University Museum lays out a full panorama of Black Futures, as envisioned in panels. It’s called “Beyond the Black Panther: Visions of Afrofuturism in American Comics.”

Its curator is Julian C. Chambliss. He wears many hats at MSU, as an English professor and as a curator for the MSU Museum. But what is Afrofuturism? 

“I like to ask people to think of Afrofuturism as the intersection of speculation and liberation, and in the context of comics, these are the stories and characters that have something to say about the future from a Black perspective,” Chambliss said.

Read the full article here.