Global Medievalism into Africanfuturism
Date(s): Thursday, October 22, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Type(s): Conversation, Discussion, Talk
Genre and Form(s): African American, Fantasy, Science Fiction, World Literature
Cost: Free
About this Event
"Africanfuturism is concerned with visions of the future, is interested in technology, leaves the earth, skews optimistic, is centered on and predominantly written by people of African descent (black people) and it is rooted first and foremost in Africa. It's less concerned with "what could have been" and more concerned with "what is and can/will be". It acknowledges, grapples with and carries "what has been"."
—from Nnedi Okorafor's "Africanfuturism Defined"
By engaging the culture, history, and mythology of premodern and contemporary Nigeria, Nnedi Okorafor creates science fiction and fantasy narratives that don't privilege the Western world. Instead, her writing asks, what are the different, more inclusive, futures we can imagine?
Join Nnedi Okorafor and Matt Bell for a conversation on the premodern influences on Okorafor's writing across a variety of media—television, novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, and more—at Global Medievalism into Africanfuturism: An Evening with Nnedi Okorafor on Thursday, October 22, 2020 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Arizona time on Zoom.
While this event has sold out on Zoom, you can watch the livestream on YouTube.
Presented by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in partnership with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.
Please note: As Phoenix does not observe daylight savings time, determining the correct time outside of Arizona can be somewhat confusing (especially as we move between MST and PDT throughout the year). To check the current time in Phoenix, Arizona, you can check the world time clock. If you have any questions, please reach out to the Piper Center at pipercenter.info@asu.edu.
