Image: Participants in the Afrofuturism Writers' Pavilion at the 2020 Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. Mr. Broaddus is in the front row, on the left. Front row, left to right: Maurice Broaddus, Dr. Chesya Burke. Back row, left to right: P. Djèlí Clark, Dr. Iheoma Nwachukwu, Bill Campbell, Dr. Michele Tracey Berger, Tenea D. Johnson. Image Credit: Dr. Michele Tracey Berger.

Welcome to Week 8 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 podcast interview with writer, teacher, and community organizer Maurice Broaddus, a participant in the Afrofuturism Writers’ Pavilion at the 2020 ZORA! Festival.

His work has appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, Weird Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s, Cemetery Dance, and Uncanny Magazine. Several of his stories have been collected in The Voices of Martyrs. His books include the urban fantasy trilogy The Knights of Breton Court, the steampunk novella Buffalo Soldier, the steampunk novel Pimp My Airship, and the YA detective novel The Usual Suspects. As an editor, he’s worked on Dark Faith, Dark Faith: Invocations, Streets of Shadows, People of Colo(u)r Destroy Horror, and Apex Magazine.

This interview was conducted by Kimberly Williams, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Florida, during the ZORA! Festival Afrofuturism Conference on Jan. 30, 2020. It lasts about 20 minutes.

You can find the interview here.

Explorations

In the Explorations segment we pose a series of questions for further investigation and class discussion, based on the featured Conversation. As you listen to the podcast interview, consider the following questions:

• Broaddus defines Afrofuturism as "art through the black cultural lens." In describing his cultural background what personal details does he offer? What influenced him to write black speculative fiction?
• Broaddus notes that Afrofuturism "offers a critique of the present but always with an eye towards the future." How has Afrofuturism influenced his work as a community activist? As a person of faith?
• Broaddus talks about his transition from horror writing to Afrofuturism and speculative fiction. What links does Broaddus see between Zora Neale Hurston and Afrofuturism? How has she served as a model for Broaddus as a writer and community activist?
• Broaddus has been a professional writer for 20 years, working in multiple genres. How does he balance that work with his other professions (teacher, community activist)?

References

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

• Clive Barker
• Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989)
• Candyman (1992)
• Stephen King’s Desperation (1996)
• Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993)
• Walter Mosely’s Futureland (2001)

Next week: An interview with Chesya Burke, an editor, educator, and author of comic books and speculative fiction, including The Strange Crimes of Little Africa, and Let's Play White. Burke shares her vision of how black writers reach back to the past to reframe the future.