Afrofuturist

adjective & noun

Etymology

As an adjective, formed by compounding the combining form Afro- + the adjective futurist, on the model of the noun Afrofuturism. See OED Afro-, comb. form, OED futurist, adj., ODAAE Afrofuturism. Compare OED Afrofuturist, adj. The noun is formed by conversion of the adjective, perhaps on the model of futurist and other nouns with the ending -ist (see OED futurist, n).

Meaning & use

adjective

Also Afro-futurist, Afro futurist

  1. literature
    1918–Describing various elements such as media, literature, and ideologies that reflect Afrofuturism, typically characterized by intersections of science fiction, fantasy, speculative media, and Black history.
    Show quotationsHide quotations
    1918
    The date of the "Sweetwater Gap" in our book, Silver Surfer: Ghost Light, is the also the birthday of famed science fiction writer and Afrofuturist icon OCTAVIA E. BUTLER! Happy Heavenly Birthday! Your work still inspires us!
    W. H. Eccles Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony Gloss.
    1930
    This chapter uses Dana's dismemberment in Kindred and Afrofuturist theorizations on blackness, technology, and female humanity to illustrate how Mutu's above mentioned collage enacts a strategy for deconstructing and reconstructing how difference becomes inscribed on black female bodies.
    American Shorthand Teacher March 262/2
    1956
    OJ Spooky's pomo-Afro-Futurist Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Asphodel) is oddly, derivatively symphonic, though the punkishly minimalist repetitions create suspense.
    Daily Mail 17 January 4/7
    1958
    It was an Afro-futurist fantasy that constructed funk and its offshoots as a male universe, a characterization that still tarnishes black audio sci-fi (listen to Sir Menelik and Kool Keith's "Space Cadillac") and funk history, as if women like June Tyson, Betty Davis, Lyn Collins, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, and (most notably) LaBelle were all earth-bound realists.
    Times 14 November 14/6
    1988
    2020 I'm just gonna go back into my hard rock hole and dress like I'm from an Afro futurist Matrix universe
    Chicago Tribune 29 January vii. 71/2
    1992
    Quite the departure from her more traditional jazz flute, Mitchell's new release stands on its own in what can only be described as Afro-futurist music.
    M. Markoe What Dogs have taught Me 212

noun

Also Afro-futurist, Afro futurist

  1. literature
    1927–A person who subscribes to or creates work that reflects various themes of Afrofuturism, including the intersection of Black culture with science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy, and the reimagination of alternative realities for Black people.
    Show quotationsHide quotations
    1927
    In an attempt to wrench the intellectual topography of colonialism from its twilight temporality in postcolonial theory, I look at experiments in Third World or multicultural cyberpunk, digital diaspora, and the invention of "race aliens" or "Afrofuturists" in the era of the postnation.
    General Radio Experimenter April
    1935
    It might be the Afrofuturist in me, but I love to imagine this notion that black folx were liberated in terms of sexuality and gender pres
    Popular Mechanics August 263
    1959
    Sun Ra and his Arkestra inspired other Afrofuturists, interstellar fellow travelers, such as George Clinton, founder of Parliament/Funkadelic, Jamaica's Lee Scratch Perry, and Chicago disc jockey "Captain Sky," whose radio shows spoke metaphorically of space travel to bring attention to the conditions of black people in the United States.
    K. Henney Radio Engineering Handbook ed. 5 66
    1979
    Thank you @adobefor having me give a keynote on why and how I became an afro-futurist on the APAC main stage at MAX 2022 💖‼️🗣️
    Radio Electronics May 80/1
    1997
    One of the discursive communities that I find most instructive for thinking about music as the interface between technologies and the production of identity is Afrofuturists, a loose collection of writers, musicians, technologists, critics, and artists.
    J. Eargle Loudspeaker Handbook 2001 xiii. 257

See also