View source for Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose

'''Dery, Mark. "Black to the Future: Interviews''' with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose." In Mark Dery, editor, ''Flamewars: The Discourse of Cyberculture.'' Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2544248] Rpt. in part Marleen S. Barr, editor. ''Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction's Newest New-Wave Tradition.'' Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2008.

As of 16 January 2023, the essay is available on line without a paywall at websites linked here[https://www.kit.ntnu.no/sites/www.kit.ntnu.no/files/Black%20to%20the%20Future%20(Dery)_0.pdf] and here.[https://www.uvic.ca/victoria-colloquium/assets/docs/Black%20to%20the%20Future.pdf]

Barr's anthology is reviewed by [[Debating the Histories and Futures of Black SF|Mark A. McCutcheon]], ''Extrapolation'' 52.2 (Summer 2011): with references to Dery pp. 246 and 249 (review linked at McCutcheon's name).


An important quotation and key for users of this wiki, from Dery's introduction to the Interviews: "Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture — and, more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future — might for want of a better term, be called 'Afrofuturism'" (p. 180). 

Dery may miss some earlier work — see [[Debating the Histories and Futures of Black SF|McCutcheon review of Barr anthology]] — but important references. Beyond the future along what we'll note William Gibson called "[[The Gernsback Continuum]],"
<blockquote>
 [...] African-Ameican voices have other stories to tell about culture, technology, and [[THINGS TO COME|things to come]]. If there is an Afrofuturism, it must be sought in unlikely places [...]. Glimpses of it can be caught in Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings such as ''Molasses'',[https://www.kingandmcgaw.com/prints/jean-michel-basquiat/molasses-1983-435602#435602::border:50_frame:880229_glass:770007_media:3_mount:108644_mount-width:50_size:620,480] which features a pie-eyed, snaggletoothed robot; in movies such as John Styles's ''[[THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET|The Brother from Another Planet]]'' and Lizzie Borden's ''Born in Flames''; in records such as Jimi Hendrix's ''Electric Ladyland'', George Clinton's ''Computer Games'',[https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/rediscover-computer-games/]
</blockquote> Herbie Hancock's ''Future Shock'' [with the song "Rockit" eventually a music-video with dancing robots],[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock_(Herbie_Hancock_album)][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock] and Bernie Worrell's ''Blacktronic Science'' [...]."[https://www.discogs.com/release/1862346-Bernie-Worrell-Blacktronic-Science] 

 Afrofuturism percolates, as well, through black-written, black-drawn comics such as Milestone Media's ''[[Hardware (comic)|Hardware]]'' ("A cog in the corporate machine is about to strip some gears ..."), about a black scientists who dons forearm-mounted cannons and a "smart" battle suit to wage guerrilla war on his Orwellian, multinational employer. [...]

[... Milestone-DC's] Icon,[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_(character)#Powers] an exemplar of Afrofuturism that seeks antebellum memories, hip-culture, and cyberpunk into its compass, warrants detailed exegesis. (Dery p. 182)
</blockquote>

Exegesis Dery goes on to give, which see. Note also interviews with authors, with a number of relevant comments.


RDE, finishing, 16Jan23
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