[14] Further, because of Delany's interest in black separatism and the establishment of a black state, Blake is an extension and exploration of the themes and ideas he explored in his 1852 publication of The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States. What if this was a time before sharks evolved to sense blood in the water? 8 Speculative Fiction Books by Black Authors about Black Futures for Imagining a New World. The idea of Black superheroes (making it a sub-genre of Fantasy), brilliant Black doctors and inventors (making it a sub-genre of Science Fiction), reimagined Horror icons (making it a sub-genre of Horror), retelling cultural events (making it a sub-genre of (Alternate) History), and just overall Black exploits (making it a genre in and of itself) made this movement a powerful one. Fantasy = Fantasy works feature worlds whose speculative happenings are commonly tied to magical, spiritual or other (sometimes unexplained) means that have no concrete bearing in our world. Afrofuturism and science fiction continually intersect as "most science fiction tales dramatically deal with how the individual is going to contend with these alienating, dislocating societies and circumstances and that pretty much sums up the mass experiences of black people in the postslavery twentieth century" (298). Snapshot: Milton Berle appears on This Is Your Life, Almanac: Jane Austen on feigning affection, Almanac: Matthew Arnold on character and beauty, On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now, Fascinating Passages from Fascinating Books, Just because: Connie Boswell appears on The Ed Sullivan Show, Almanac: Max Beerbohm on mediocrity and genius, Cold Turkey Press: ‘Another Pair of Sonnets’, From the Design Department Cutting Edge: Up, Up and Away Off the Page. The alien in Lagoon has come to share enlightenment to help humanity stop violence, war, and colonization. Increasingly, Supernatural Horror works are allowing their characters of color to live longer through (or even survive) the ordeals they are put through. The works that do fall under this genre allow readers to imagine distant futures, technology that they cannot conceive of, and of course the occasional alien invasion or abduction. [1] Indeed, John Pfeiffer has argued that there have always been elements of speculative fiction in black literature.

[1], Of One Blood (1902) by the prolific writer and editor Pauline Hopkins (1859–1930), describing the discovery of a hidden civilization with advanced technology in Ethiopia, is the first "lost race" novel by an African-American author. It is the construct and the canvas around which we dream of things lost, remembered, or rewritten. Here, the rhythmic percussive structure of the narrative mirrors the repetition of the heartbeat rhythm of the drum that is used to induce a spiritual invocation or communication with the ancestors in many African spiritual traditions. And so we offer a list of fifteen works, honored by the Otherwise Award in the past, to feed the imaginations of those engaged in this moment and this movement. However, Magical Realism can be of some use in Black Speculative Fiction in that the words "magic" and "mysticism" are often used to describe cultural beliefs held by people in the African Diaspora.

Paradoxically, these two came as a pair because they are so different from each other. [6] Published in The Pittsburgh Courier, Schuyler's serials lampoon the Talented Tenth, criticize colorism, and explore double-consciousness. Black Speculative Literature is literature that centers the lineage and myriad diversity of Black creative thought and culture, a literature deeply rooted in representations from Black perspectives from Africa and the Black diaspora, a literature that aims to imagine Black futures. This of course leads to the importance of Horror in Black Speculative Fiction.

Afrofuturism is a sub-genre of Science Fiction and Fantasy. scenarios ("What if Harriet Tubman fought demons?" The sub-genre’s connection to Science Fiction is obvious due to one of its defining factors being the technology, and the Fantasy comes into play when the text at hand is not inspired by a specific historical figure/location, when it takes place off of this planet, or when it is set outside of the specified time frame. [10] The Anglo-American Magazine often also published articles on science, particularly the science of race. Supernatural Horror is a sub-genre of Fantasy and Horror. The workings of science function can serve as metaphors for the fundamental experience of post-slavery Black people in the twentieth century. The point of the alien arrival in Lagoon is not deception, colonization, and violence as it is in nearly all Western/American science fiction and alien encounters — Mars Attacks, War of the Worlds, Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Independence Day, Men in Black, etc. . Happy writing and reading and representing. Blacktastic centers the people in the Diaspora in a fantasy adventure where their heroics are rewarded and they are allowed to grow and journey throughout life. Emecheta explores these ideas in a novel set in a fictional Black country from a Black perspective drawing from the Black experience in history: Black empires, Black agency, the sustainment of free Black communities, the targeted white violence against these free Black communities, exploitation, slavery, and colonialization, among others. Further Reading: “Seven Thieves” by Emmalia Harrington, “Bloodline” by D.K. In Sword and Soul ancient Africa (pre-colonization) serves as a backdrop for adventure. Thus, Who Fears Death also works as an Africanfuturist text not just in the creation of a sustained and specific south-Sudanese imaginative space for the novel’s duration similar to Okorafor’s imaginative Lagos in Lagoon, but also in how we see the representation of the rape of Black women as a political tool throughout history here in Africa by the African patriarchy and elsewhere in the global African diaspora by the white Western patriarchy — indeed, with the interjection of the Western white gaze this theme of sexual violence against Black women becomes a characteristic of Afrofuturism as well.

Jennifer Marie Brissett, Elysium (Honor List, 2014), Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents (Honor List, 1998), Andrea Hairston, Mindscape (Honor List, 2006), Andrea Hairston, Redwood and Wildfire (Winner, 2011), Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl in the Ring (Honor List, 1998), Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber (Honor List, 2000), N. K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season (Long List, 2015), Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (Honor List, 2014), Kiini Ibura Salaam, Ancient, Ancient (Winner, 2012), Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts (Honor List, 2017), Rivers Solomon, The Deep (Honor List, 2019), Sheree Renée Thomas, Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Long List, 2016), View & Search 26 years of the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award in the. A prerequisite for this genre is that it is in a specific time period and will use real events, real people, and real places to tell the story. Horror in the Black Speculative Fiction sense focuses on Horror tales unique to the people of the African Diaspora, or at least ones that center them in the narrative.

[2], In the late 1990s a number of cultural critics began to use the term Afrofuturism to depict a cultural and literary movement of thinkers and artists of the African diaspora who were using science, technology, and science fiction as means of exploring the black experience. Just like we know it is not enough to invite one Black person into the boardroom and shut the door behind them, Africanfuturism tells us it is not just enough to plop one Black character down into a white world — or even a whole cast of Black characters — and end our work there after congratulating ourselves for embracing Afrofuturism and diversity in literature. Many thanks for sharing your present with who knows how many thousands of people. Superhero based fiction could also fit into the Blacktastic sub-genre, but it more often than not would overlap with Science Fiction (usually determined by how the superhero(es) in question received their powers.

Blaxploitation is a sub/genre of Black Speculative Fiction. The Society recognizes works by authors of color and featuring characters of color through awards, provides reading lists for educators and librarians, including one for Black History Month and has a wiki specifically for collecting information about people of color working in these genres. Dieselfunk allows for Black mobsters, a retelling of race riots and lynchings, African-centered medicine men/women and Black noir, bringing the early years of the 20th century to life in a whole new way.

Further Reading: “Granddad’s Garage” by Brandon Massey, "Harlem” by Eric Jerome Dickey, "Wet Pain" by Terence Taylor, Get Out (film), and Tales from the Hood (film). to show that the label includes ALL people of the Diaspora and places their culture, experiences and THEM at the forefront of these imaginative works. [7], By the 1920s, speculative fiction was also published by African writers. Works that show African Diasporic people creating and utilizing technologies of today, or simply interacting with science positively are the types of empowering works that make up Black-tech. [17], Kali Tal argues that one of the subgenres of black science fiction is black near-future militant fiction, and categorizes Imperium and Black Empire as examples of this subgenre. Black audiences wanted films that showed them with agency badly, and movie studios, seeing the possible profit, gave the audiences what they wanted in abundance. [10] The subject of Delany's serial novel is a successful slave revolt in the Southern states and the founding of a new black country in Cuba. Do they think edgy makes sense when their design looks like the cover was badly trimmed? Immediately and thoroughly, it is the Africanfuturist gaze, rather than the Afrofuturist — which would still privilege a Western and American locale — that is present. With the rich culture of the diaspora as a backdrop and Black heroes (and villains) at the center, this Fantasy can step away from the traditionally European and Eurocentric Fantasy and create worlds never even thought of. According to the Carl Brandon Society's website, "It furthers Octavia’s legacy by providing the same experience/opportunity that Octavia had to future generations of new writers of color.". Another fascinating author in this space is Igbo and Tamil author Akwaeke Emezi; they work with a different balance of Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism in their work with a greater focus on concrete LGBTQ themes: one example is the figure of Jam, the young Black trans girl who is the main character of Emezi’s recent YA novel, Pet. Visit my website for full links, other content,... of a sonnet that which appeared in 'Your Obituary Is Waiting,' a collection of my poems published in November 2019 and soon to be released in a bilingual edition by the German pubishing house Moloko Print. [16] Griggs self-published his novel and sold it door-to-door. I went straight from her deathbed back into lockdown in the apartment in Upper Manhattan that we shared so happily for so long, and have spent nearly all of... “The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. Writes Okorafor: “Afrofuturism: Wakanda builds its first outpost in Oakland, CA, USA. In contrast, the 1899 novel Imperium in Imperio by Sutton Griggs (1872–1933) ends with preparations for a violent takeover of Texas for African Americans by a secret black government. All Votes Add Books To This List flag this list (?) The Otherwise Motherboard is in solidarity with the current mass protests, in the US and beyond, that are fighting against police violence and white supremacy and for Black lives. It is worth noting here how the concept of “change” in the recent century and a half has opened up more positive developments relating to safety and opportunity for Black individuals, who started off the 20th century being denied basic rights all over the world.