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[afrofuturisticeyes]

Blog post 5

We’ve discussed the idea of “otherness” and being “othered”. Janelle Monáe’s character was othered in Dirty Computer, Lauren was othered in Parable of the Sower, the equistrians were othered in Sorry to Bother You. We’ve discussed countless of examples of otherness in class, it’s a large element to the study of Afro-futurism. An ethnoracial person is often seen as different in the stories we view, if they are not already the dominant ethnicity. For example, the short film “Jonah” didn’t have the ethnic “otherness” that other films did considering that it was set in Tanzania, an East African country, full of, well, Africans. I don’t expect they feel the same “otherness” that African-Americans and other Black people in the U.S. do. Like in Black Panther, Killmonger felt himself being “othered” real harshly having that U.S African American experience. Being ethnic can mean being “othered”. But this concept of otherness extends beyonds ethnoracial identity. It extends to sexual and gender identity, to political identity, to religious identity. I got to thinking when Professor Due spoke about white activists being othered for standing with the BLM movement, it’s a very strange phenomena that occurs when stepping outside the status quo. The biggest one I’m seeing now is the otherness of political identity. With the current climate surrounding the genocide of Palestine by Israel occupation on campus, we’re seeing student activists of all types of political identities come around to rally for what they believe is true and right. There’s always sides to things, and though there can be a strong community within one side, there’s still a sense of otherness. With the students who are supportive of Israel, they’re being othered by those who support Palestine. I’ve seen many posts exposing of who those students are, some were running for student government and others were just active around campus. It’s interesting to see how they’re being spoken of. But on the main scale of things, they’re only othered by the students (who seem to be largely Pro-Palestine, including myself). The rest of them, who are pro-Palestine, are being “othered” by administration, law enforcement, and the media. It’s a very strange and dystopian time to live in on the UCLA campus right now. Even though the community with SJP is very strong and the students are rallying for divestment, it’s very strange to see everyone else outside of the rally not understand why we’re protesting. The minority identities are constructed with this sense of being set apart, ostracized for what ever it is that doesn’t fit the mold of the majority. 

[afrofuturisticeyes]

Blog post #4

During class, we’ve discussed topics of race and culture, it was embedded a lot this week with the discussion of Beyoncé’s Lemonade album. Lyrically, it’s deep, honest, and raw. She reveals a lot about her family dynamics to the world, within her marriage, her childhood, and family patterns. Her including a visual aspect to the entire album was an integral part to how Lemonade came to be, it’s understood best paired with the music videos. Visually, Lemonade is an homage to the South, a place rich of customs and culture for Black Americans and African Americans. Each song had their assigned emotion and spoken word that provided a deeper understanding of where her head was at during the creation of the album and added to her story. Specifically with “Daddy Lessons”, she explores the family pattern of unfaithful men and her response to what an unfaithful man should be. She can’t let go of her man because of the issues her father left her with due to his infidelity, but she mentions being forewarned about “men like him”. It’s introspective.

Beyoncé also inserts herself in scenes of the past, like in “All Night”, and in scenes of the present-day, like in “Sorry”. It serves a sense of empowerment to Black womanhood, both in the present and past, and the same empowerment will continue on into the future. In all music videos, she’s reclaiming her power and pride as a woman. It’s afro futuristic in the sense that she puts herself in a leadership role, she has become the boss in her life and re-centers herself in her life. It is empowering for womanhood. Her album just makes me think about how culture can shape gender identity. In my culture, womanhood is strong and respected but also made to seem small as a man. I wonder of the ways Afro-futurism can be used to mitigate these issues in the media so it can then translate into real life. With my culture’s history, women have been seen as deities before but they do not nearly carry the same weight societally now. With a reconnection from past to present and future, I can only hope for a progression. A deeper appreciation of the past can create a positive future. With class discussions, I appreciated Beyoncé’s work for what it has done for other women. The work was solely for her release but the impact is caused was beyond just her own emotional release.

[afrofuturisticeyes]

Spending over a month in this class, I have learned a good deal about what Afro-futurism is and how to identify it in the mediums I see and listen to every day. There is a good deal of artists I already am familiar with, like Janelle Monáe, Miles Davis, and Kendrick Lamar. I’ve reviewed Beyoncé’s Lemonade album in an academic setting before so some of the themes I have already identified. I’m simply not a movie person so all the movies we’ve seen so far (aside from Black Panther) I’m new to. 

With music, there’s a sense of it sounding grand, it’s huge and chaotic but the music is still controlled. It is still intentional even though it’s loud and brash. You can hear this in Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, his music wasn’t chill and mellow like before, it expanded and grew in auditory size. It being his biggest selling album in time speaks to how important for this experimental sound to popularize and what it means for Afrofuturism to be in popular media. Though I realize it was pioneered by Sun Ra, Miles Davis is the only one who I had listened to in terms of experimental jazz music.You can also hear this in Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer film, the music is big. It’s not simple melodies, it’s complex just like her storylines.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Sorry To Bother You, I thought the message was incredibly important, it being about activism, unionization, and capitalism. The workers in the movie turning into horses is symbolic of slavery, which we discussed in class, and there is that tie of history and modernization that Afrofuturism is about. I thought it was interesting how Boots Riley was able to depict the story with such a modern spin, despite it being satire it still held a lot of truth to how slavery and capitalism are intertwined. Also the discussion of not being able to escape capitalism is something that I spoke with my friend, who watched the movie with me. Yeah, Cash was an activist and a unionizer and he lost his footing for second, this unfortunately happens all the time. Theres a lot of rises and falls with activism which can be frustrating because yes, I can say I am critically conscious of my actions but it can become hard to stay on the straight and narrow when capitalism is everywhere. It’s how Cash fell out of it, he lost himself a second with the money, and that’s how easily capitalism can claim its victims.

[afrofuturisticeyes]

The country has a terrible housing crisis, many people I know personally are suffering through housing insecurity. The housing crisis is intertwined with many policies and political agendas. For this reason, another issue for my Earthseed community is political prosecution. When the state has a dominant ideology, it can become dangerous to publically be on the other side because the state sees it as an act of violence. I am seeking to provide shelter, and provide it away from the general population so we can grow our community and learn from and teach each other and organize in ways to disrupt the common ideology. This verse will be a staple for my community, “Drowning people / Sometimes die / Fighting their rescuers” (Ch 6). It’s important to know that help comes from within. We say what helps us, not what outside communities think will be help for us, we define ourselves and what is needed. There is too much of white savior going on in the world to allow for this, we don’t need “rescuers”, rather supporters but supporters who will listen. This second verse will also be incredibly important to my Earthseed community, “There is no end/ To what a living world / Will demand of you” (ch 13). This implies that the fight will always continue even if iwe have created an ideal community for ourselves. It does not stop with us and will continue for others.

I would create my Earthseed community in the San Luis Obispo area of California if in the perfect world, that community was vacant and we took shelter there. Anyone can join my community as long as they are tolerant and open-minded to grow with us. We understand that critical consciousness takes time to develop and as long as they show interest in learning and teaching, they are welcome in our community. Any explicit and malicious displays of xenophobia won’t be tolerated. We will also allow people to come and go from our community, they do not have to reside here 24/7, they can have their own space outside. We would create our own style of leadership, where community is at the forefront of our priorities. It will replicate many communist ideals like the removal of social class and nation-state and uphold community mutual aid. Money will not exist in the way it does now, our community will work off trades and necessity. We can trade each other our goods for other goods, knowledge, but necessities like food, water, shelter, warmth, and knowledge will all be provided for everyone.

I would implement renewable energy to facilitate heating and cooling for homes. As well as water transport. I would like for the manual heavier-on-body tasks to be facilitated through renewable energy so we are not wasting away our bodies through hard work. Everyone in my Earthseed community will have a house and food will be provided for everyone as SLO is rich of farmable land. We will receive nutrients from the land and sea. We’ll have community gatherings to strengthen our bond. In terms of safety, there will be a crowd of activists in our group who are willing to step forward and disrupt when necessary to gain “power” from the capitalist world. The community will understand that our oppressors need to become powerless and we have to play their game to achieve our goals. Since we are nestling into a place that was once occupied by others, SLO already has a ton of housing for my Earthseed community. We will provide housing for everyone who needs it, no questions asked.

[afrofuturisticeyes]

I had been introduced to Afrofuturism a couple of years ago through a music video director Chelsea Odufu at a school event. Her works focus on Afrofuturisism andd she carries those elements in various different visual aspects. She focused on a video she directed for Masego, an artist I have listened to before. She showed us the music video and discussed Masego’s percussion being an old African instrument that was integral to his music and to the visual she created. It was very small details that she focused on, it was fascinating to see the explanations for her creativity. Her discussion of Afrofuturism and how she has made a career out of it piqued my interest. I remember she said that afrofuturism allows for Black people to express themselves freely without the fear of judgement and connecting back to their ancestors. As I’m a spiritual person and Mexican, I found the statement of reconnecting with their ancestors incredibly moving because in my culture, we try to do the same by honoring the foods, activities, locations, etc that our past ancestors loved. That’s why I enrolled into this course when I saw it was open. I keep hearing Afro-futurism be used online so I know it’s important to people and the expression of African stories in science fiction realms. I have little to no background on futurism aside from what I learned that day, which was the intersections of history and future.

With the few weeks of being in this class, I have realized that Afro-futurism isn’t only shown in visual aspects, but it is in music through sounds and in literature by words and thoughts. It’s also in movies through actions and behaviors, it is a lot bigger than what I thought it was. We were told afrofuturism is not exclusive to African people only, which I found interesting as that is what I mostly see online but I do understand the main concept of it being used cross cultures.

I’m excited to learn more about how Afro-futurism has helped with the expression of stories in the past and in current times. Science fiction has always been one of my favorite genres of movies and books, so I’m excited to add in another element to sci-fi media that I engage in. Although I will have to learn to manage time as though this class gives us the luxury of being asynchronous, it is heavy in content that it has been hard to balance with my research courses. However, I’m excited to learn what I can for the remainder of the quarter about Afro-futurisism so I can become a better analyzer of media I consume.