submitted by aoki@augsburg.edu
An exciting course is being offered for the first time this spring, CRS120, “Black to the Future: Afrofuturism as Cultural Aesthetic.” Coined by Mark Dery, Afrofuturism is an aesthetic theory that many Black writers and artists have used as cultural expression for decades. Lisa Yaszek, scholar of Afrofuturism refers to it as “an aesthetic mode that encompasses a diverse range of artists working in different genres and media who are united by their shared interest in projecting black futures derived from Afrodiasporic experiences.”
This class will investigate this mode of viewing Afrofuturism as a tool of exposing issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality and as a celebration of Black resistance to the systems that uphold those issues. As an introduction to Afrofuturism and Black speculative fictions, this course will look at the key concepts of Afrofuturism by acknowledging how Black people have represented themselves within the field of Science Fiction and Fantasy and relating artistic avenues.
This course will consider texts in a variety of mediums including short stories, novels, music, music videos, and film. Starting with W.E.B Du Bois’ “The Comet,” the course will traverse thematically, touching on the music of Sun Ra and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower before moving to modern examples of the tradition like Rivers Solomon’s The Deep, music from Janelle Monae, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. CRS 120 fulfills the Equity, Power, and Social Justice or the Humanities GenEd requirement. The class is also cross-listed as ENL 275.