The Comet - 150 Years of W.E.B. Du Bois: Afrofutuism 2.0, Natasha A Kelly

Afrofuturism 2.0 builds on the theoretical and artistic legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois.
 
Afrofuturism emerges from the work of African and African-diasporic artists, musicians, performers, filmmakers and writers. Some well-known names include Octavia Butler, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kodwo Eshun. The content and form of the artistic work often represent experiments with temporality, for which technological novelties are sometimes used as a starting point – such as spaceships or novel communication methods – as well as actual, current problems. The question is where this experimentation can lead: which paths might lead towards a world without racism, and what might that world look like?
 
Following this tradition, The Comet – Afrofuturism 2.0 works at the interface between Germany and the Anglophone world. All contributions to the anthology, which is designed like a museum catalogue, are available in both English and German, and the analyses of contemporary R&B music, comics, superhero movies, etc. can best be described as parts of global bridge-building efforts for an explicitly political, Afrocentric movement.
 
The book builds on the legacy of the renowned scholar, activist and journalist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), who also built bridges between continents – in his thinking, but also through his biography. Kelly explains that Du Bois – probably without knowing it – was instrumental in developing the genre of Afrofuturism. The book The Comet – Afrofuturism 2.0 thus appropriately begins with Du Bois’ short story “The Comet”. Kelly translated this story from 1920 into German for the first time, and at what has turned out to be an eerily appropriate time.
 
ISBN
9783944666631
Item Weight
788 g
Product Dimensions
12 x 211 x 210 mm