Long before the film Black Panther captured the public’s imagination, the cultural critic Mark Dery had coined the term “Afrofuturism” to describe “speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture.” Since then, the term has been applied to speculative creatives as diverse as the pop artist Janelle Monae, the science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and the visual artist Nick Cave. But only recently have thinkers turned to how Afrofuturism might guide, and shape, law. The participants in this workshop explore the many ways Afrofuturism can inform a range of legal issues, and even chart the way to a better future for us all.

Introduction:

Bennett Capers (Law, Fordham)

Panel 1:

Ngozi Okidegbe (Law, Cardozo), Of Afrofuturism, Of Algorithms

Alex Zamalin (Political Science & African American Studies, Detroit Mercy), Afrofuturism as Reconstitution

Panel 2:

Rasheedah Phillips (PolicyLink), Race Against Time: Afrofuturism and Our Liberated Housing Futures

Etienne C. Toussaint (Law, South Carolina), For Every Rat Killed