{"id":639,"date":"2019-10-15T16:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/?p=639"},"modified":"2019-10-27T15:39:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T15:39:29","slug":"alondra-nelson-afrofuturism-past-future-visions-22nd-of-oct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/2019\/10\/15\/alondra-nelson-afrofuturism-past-future-visions-22nd-of-oct\/","title":{"rendered":"Alondra Nelson &#8211; &#8216;AfroFuturism: Past-Future Visions&#8217; (22nd of Oct)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For Week 2 of the Critical Theory Reading Group, we will be analysing and discussing Alondra Nelson&#8217;s &#8216;AfroFuturism: Past-Future Visions&#8217;. This sessions will take place in the Westmere Lounge at 3-5pm\u00a0 on Tuesday the 22nd of October &#8211; snacks and refreshments provided.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson engages with innovation and improvisation in the African Diaspora&#8217;s histories and Futures. In &#8216;AfroFuturism: Past-Future Visions&#8217;, Nelson explores Afrofuturism; a term that was originally coined by Mark Dery in his essay &#8220;Black to the Future&#8221; as an attempt to frame both black identity and experience in science and technology. Throughout the essay, Nelson focuses on Afrofuturism&#8217;s narrative sonic and visual components while also exploring the works of Nigerian-born photographer Fatimah Tuggar. For Nelson Afrofuturism is vital, as it envisions utopic and sometimes dystopic tomorrows, which act as necessary alternatives to unbalanced and neocolonial developments in the modern world. This, as well as the importance of Afrofuturism within the discourse that developed during the speculative turn, cements Nelson as a crucial thinker in a rich, and growing\u00a0 field of critical study.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-642\" style=\"width: 762px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-642 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2019\/10\/TheLastAngelofHistory.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"762\" height=\"517\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iYe_nj7xfQM\">trailer for John Akomfrah&#8217;s &#8216;The Last Angel of History&#8217;<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For access to the reading, and to keep updated with future events, please join our mailing list:<a href=\"mailto:contemptheoryuob@gmail.com\"> contemptheoryuob@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We look forward to seeing you all on the 22nd!<\/p>\n<p>The Contemporary Theory Reading Group<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Week 2 of the Critical Theory Reading Group, we will be analysing and discussing Alondra Nelson&#8217;s &#8216;AfroFuturism: Past-Future Visions&#8217;. This sessions will take place in the Westmere Lounge at 3-5pm\u00a0 on Tuesday the 22nd of October &#8211; snacks and refreshments provided. Nelson engages with innovation and improvisation in the African Diaspora&#8217;s histories and Futures. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/2019\/10\/15\/alondra-nelson-afrofuturism-past-future-visions-22nd-of-oct\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Alondra Nelson &#8211; &#8216;AfroFuturism: Past-Future Visions&#8217; (22nd of Oct)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":376,"featured_media":642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[110,131,135,133,136,137,132,134],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theory-group","tag-afrofuturism","tag-alondra-nelson","tag-dystopia","tag-fatimah-tuggar","tag-music","tag-photography","tag-speculative-theory","tag-utopia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}