Welcome to Week 19 of the ZORA! Festival 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Course!

Please begin by reviewing About the Course for an introduction and orientation to the 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Syllabus, which bridges the organizing themes of the first two years of the five-year Afrofuturism Conference Cycle: "What is Afrofuturism?" and "What is the Sound of Afrofuturism?"

Note: Each week the course coordinator will release new content related to the conference themes. Content posted here will remain publicly accessible and may be incorporated into other courses, in part or in full, via links to this site. Suggested citation: French, Scot. Syllabus for ZORA! Festival Afrofuturism Course, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fall 2020-Spring 2021. STARS, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/afrofuturism_syllabus_about/.

Conversations

In the Conversations segment we share resources featuring participants in the 2020-2021 ZORA! Festival Afrofuturism Conference.

This week’s featured Conversation is a panel discussion on "What is the Sound of Afrofuturism?" with conference curator Dr. Julian Chambliss (Michigan State University) and conference speakers Dr. Regina Bradley (Kennesaw State University), Dr. Paul Ortiz (University of Florida), Dr. Erik Steinskog (University of Copenhagen), and Dr. Toniesha Taylor (Texas Southern University), moderated by Dr. Clarissa West-White (Bethune-Cookman University).

The panel discussion took place on January 30, 2021, as the morning session of Day 2 of the 2021 ZORA! Festival Academic Conference. The conference was organized around the theme: "What is the Sound of Afrofuturism?"

The panel discussion lasts about 2 hours.

You can find the panel discussion here.

References

Authors, artists, and works referenced in the talk include:

Music

• George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic
• Sun Ra
• War - "The World Is A Ghetto" (1972)
• The Geto Boys - "The World Is A Ghetto" (1996) - particularly the music video
• DJ Paul and Three 6 Mafia
• African American/Negro spirituals - particularly emancipation spirituals
• Trap music
• Southern rap
• Homemade mixtapes as a method of music dispersal
• Bad Brains - "The Youth Are Getting Restless" (1987)
• OutKast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994), ATLiens (1996), Stankonia (2000), Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
• Cardi B
• Martha & The Vandellas - "Dancing in the Street" (1964)
• Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (2010)
• Jimi Hendrix
• Erica Baydu
• Earth, Wind, and Fire
• Labelle
• John and Alice Coltrane
• Beyoncé - Lemonade (2016)
• Chuck D and Public Enemy - "By the Time I Get to Arizona" (1991)

Texts and Authors

• Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (1935), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), WPA writings
• Kodwo Eshun, More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (1998)
• Kevin Everod Quashie, The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture (2012)
• Dr. Matthew Morrison
• Alondra Nelson, "Introduction: Future Texts," Social Text 20, no. 2 (Summer 2002), 97-113
• Greg Tate
• James Baldwin - writings about growing up in Harlem
• C.L.R. James
• Octavia Butler - Parable series (1993, 1998)
• Reynaldo Anderson

Films

• Blade Runner (1982) - particularly the soundtrack
• Films in the Alien franchise

Next week: TBD