Edited by Dr. tobias c. van Veen and Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks, Afrofuturist Studies & the Speculative Arts examines the global cultures and influences of Afrofuturism and like speculative approaches. The series is published by Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield. Our wordmark and design are by Stacey Robinson, and our book covers are by BLACKMAU, a collaboration of Stacey Robinson and Kamau Grantham.
Afrofuturist Studies & the Speculative Arts establishes the transdisciplinary study of speculative futures, arts, and approaches that intersect ethnicity, blackness, and indigeneity. Emerging from the social movements and arts of the Afrodiaspora, the speculative themes of Afrofuturism have inspired new perspectives, philosophies, and technologies of decolonization while shaping the evolution of the arts from popular music to science fiction. This series examines the global influence of Afrofuturism from popular culture to political movements, from literature, media, and philosophy to social sciences. We welcome proposals for monographs and edited collections that further our understanding of Afrofuturism, past, present, and future; and that advance the study of speculative futures across disciplines, cultures, and ethnicities. By cultivating rigorous and inventive approaches to scholarship, we encourage critical intersections with African Futurism, Indigenous Futurisms, LatinXfuturism, Sinofuturism, Arabfuturism, Subcontinental, Queer and other speculative futures. This series also seeks to further discourse around decolonizing philosophy and Afrofuturist Studies, from theory to praxis, through remix cultures and speculative design in media, arts, and performance. We are open to diverse perspectives from across the (post)humanities and social sciences, including emergent and radical discourses addressing all aspects of media, sound, literature, culture, ecology, gender, and race.
Editors
Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks is Associate Professor of Strategic Communication at California State University, East Bay. As a leading voice of Afrofuturism 2.0, Brooks develops an Afrocentric perspective that champions Black storytelling, gaming, and imagination to push beyond the colonial mindset into an expanded vision of possible futures. His research addresses futurism, new media, and race, working with forecasting think tanks, youth groups, and professionals to envision the future of better societies through media and information technologies. Through his work with the Long Term and Futures Thinking in Education Project, the Black Speculative Arts Movement, The Afrofuturist Podcast with Ahmed Best, The Institute for the Future, Fathomers, Dynamicland and others, Brooks aims to diversify and democratize the building of the future.
Dr. tobias c. van Veen is Visiting Professor in Humanities at Quest University, with doctorates in Communication Studies and Philosophy from McGill University. His research addresses philosophy of race, sound, and technology in critical media studies, and he has published widely on Afrofuturism, posthumanism, and electronic dance music cultures (EDMC). Tobias is co-editor of the Afrofuturist Studies & Speculative Arts series at Lexington Books; lead editor of the Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (2018); editor of the Afrofuturism special issue of Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture (2013); and co-editor of the special issue Echoes from the Dub Diaspora (2015). Since 1993 tobias has exhibited with galleries and festivals worldwide as an award-winning media/sound artist and curator, photographer and filmmaker, working with the Black Speculative Arts Movement, New Forms Festival, MUTEK, TheUpgradeMTL, The Society for Art and Technology (SAT), the Mobile Digital Commons Network, STEIM, and others. He recently directed the Afrofuturist short film LOST ALIEN (2018), distributed by Cinema Politica, featuring Los Angeles cosplayer ZiggZaggerZ as a photosensitive black alien stranded on a sunlit planet. Lost Alien has been featured by New York Live Arts and the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM) in the exhibitions Curating the End of the World (2020) and Altered-Worlds: Black Utopia and the Age of Acceleration (2021). Tobias hosts the Other Planes: Afro/Futurism Podcast on CreativeDisturbance.org, is creative director of sound-art label IOSOUND.ca, and he DJs vinyl every Friday as pandemixDJs with colleague Dr. Bernardo Attias. An award-winning broadcaster and photojournalist, his creative and professional photography can be found on Instagram @fugitivephilo.
Design // BLACKMAU
Our site logo and wordmark is by renowned graphics artist and comix illustrator Stacey Robinson (MFA). Robinson is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a former Arthur Schomburg Fellow. Robinson says his art pushes the boundaries of celebrating and exploiting Black culture through the use of postmodern appropriation of cultural symbols, blending non-human elements to create a survivalist metaphor. Along with John Jennings, he is part of the collaborative duo Black Kirby, which explores Afro Speculative existence by remixing the comic book aesthetics of artist Jack Kirby. He recently directed “Unveiling Visions: the Alchemy of the Black Imagination” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY, and his work has been featured in publications including the “Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures” special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and Obisidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, as well as exhibitions including “Invisible Ink: Black Independent Comix” at the University of Tennessee, and “Beyond the Frame: African American Comic Book Artists” at the Flint Institute of Arts. Stacey’s collected works reside at Modern Graphics in Berlin, with Bucknell University, and with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Trained as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Kamau Grantham finds solace creating music and art. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and spending most of his adult life in NYC, Grantham grew-up watching his mother draw with colored chalk and listening to his father play soul and jazz records. Using his background as a DJ, Grantham creates digital collages grounded in music, science-fiction, and film to celebrate the Black body and center it within visual worlds he finds aesthetically pleasing. Through his art he aims to celebrate the humanity and beauty in Black people and to inspire others to create. Grantham collaborates with Stacey Robinson as BLACKMAU.