Re/Clamation: Performing the Black Body in Afrofuturism Zoe Jourdain Jonathan Palmer Christian Keeve Afrofuturism - Fall 2014
cs i t e h t s e s k A n t u n f s e i a m c v a i n e D A St o b o R VOL. 1 NO. 1
Sun Ra
Sun Ra frequently wore ancient Egyptian inspired clothing in public. Colorful garb with either space or ancient themes was a constant in his wardrobe. Even Ra’s spaceship and his film Space is the place contained many Egyptian themes such as the set and many Egyptian symbols.
ANCIENT
On the album c Wanna Funk (1982 of Sylvester embo like form, recallin legacies of ancien heritages. Futurist accentuated by and polish, lipstick, and deliberately roots fied and fantastica legacy while simu up a futuristic postthese factors blen and into his body exist in a state of and collapse these onto hi
Sylve
cover for Do Ya 2), we see a profile odied as a Sphinxng pan-Africanist nt Egyptian royal ic accessories are drogyny of the nail d jewelry. Sylvester himself in a glorial Black historical ultaneously calling gender faรงade. All nd into each other y, allowing him to Afrika Bambaataa poly-temporality e temporal anchors Bambaataa has many ties back to s form. Africa including the name of his
ester
group called the Universal Zulu Nation. While his ties specifically to Egypt are few, he has performed shows fully clothed in Egyptian inspired attire, including the head mask which was featured in his 2004 album cover art for Dark Matter Moving At The Speed Of Light.
AESTHETICS
STEAMFUNK
Retrofuturist subculture blending Victorian / Postbellum aesthetics with a Black cultural/historical frameworks and futuristic possibilities
Critiques Utopianism of both Afrofuturism and Steampunk, opening up discussions on race, gender, class, queerness, ability. Embraces the messiness that comes with it.
Resonates strongly with Black cosplayers who must straddle subcultural intersection, responding directly to Afrofuturist and Steampunk spaces
Black bodies reclaim 19th century cultural narratives and form distinctly Black American mythologies through engagement with the fantastic, legendary, and technological
Janelle M album cover for The Arc the poster for the 1927 German mo heralded as one of the first science fictions ing out of the head of the main figure. Mon has a tower. Monáe’s city is bright and future, which in science fiction is person o
Beyoncé, in performance of Get Me Bo suit remiscent of Maria’s robot doub ters around strong themes of human physi Black dance forms, which is unusual for android aesthetics in this instance adds mena for the movem
Erykah Bad cover for New Amerykah tropes as Janelle’s ArchAndroid. Th fount of their respective ecologies, centerin form is contrasted by the imagery of natura does away with the binary between the r android as an inheritor o
Nicki M performance in the mu another example of Minaj diving int music has futuristic or mechanical under obsession with the figure of the Barbie. In t mechanical Barbie, one in a line of ma made in t
Monáe’s handroid mimics that of ovie Metropolis. Metropolis is widely s films. Both posters show technology grownáe has a city while the figure in Metropolis sparkling possibly pointing to a bright s rarely shown stemming from a of color.
n this 2007 odied, dons a full android ble in Metropolis. The song itself cenicality and displays a variety of vernacular Beyoncé’s repertoire. Her deployment of to the discussion of what roboticism can ment of Black bodies.
du’s album Part II plays on the same hey both position themselves as the ng on the head. However, Erykah’s metallic alism and spirituality that surrounds her. She robotic and the biological, positioning the f, and contributor to, life.
Minaj’s sic video Turn Me On is to the robotic form. Much of Minaj’s rtones in its style, but Minaj also has an the music video, Minaj because a life-sized any mechanical women that are being the video.
ROBO DIVAS
This zine seeks to flesh out the embodiment of Afrofuturistic aesthetics, from cosplayers to cultural icons. It functions as a physical manifestation of a field that came about largely through Afro-digital spaces. It aims to center Black bodies in redefining the archive and reimagining cultural narratives through the reclamation of temporal spaces.