The Future is Black: Creating Black Spaces to Imagine a New World

Image Courtesy of Alisha Acquaye via www.okayafrica.com

February 16, 2018 is a big day. Yes, it is both James Ingram and Ice-T’s birthdays. It is two days after Valentine’s Day. However, the excitement surrounding February 16th for myself, my friends, family, colleagues, and the Black Twitterverse is the release of the epic Marvel movie, Black Panther.

Hopefully, it will be the greatest movie ever created. It would be bananas if it wins every award possible and breaks every box office opening day record! But even if it does not, I’m giddy with anticipation of this celebration of Afro-futurism; this space to visualize Black liberation, Black genius, Black excellence and Black power. Black Panther is a reminder and opportunity to dwell in what’s possible and what’s coming. It is a catalyst for the communal, the collective, and the catharsis of Black space. That’s why my colleagues and I at Frontline Solutions have joined with Communities for Just Schools Fund, Ghost Note Agency, and PushBlack to invite all our people to experience Black Panther with us. If you’re in the DC area, come through! (No, really.) There will be a whole lot of Black folks for you to watch the movie with.

Black space is key to Black liberation. It always has been. Black spaces provide room to dream big and fiercely. Sometimes it is in these spaces that the world slows down and stillness lives. Black spaces are house parties, healing circles, the barbershop or beauty salon, the family reunion, the club meeting on campus, the planning meeting in the basement of the church or mosque, the repast after the funeral, the Black-owned bookstore on MLK Boulevard. Black spaces are a Frankie Beverly concert, Rucker Park in the summertime, the places your mind goes from an Octavia Butler book. Black spaces are on stoops in the neighborhood, on the porch of the house on the hill around the bend at the end of the country road, and at the chess tables in the park.

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These spaces offer revolution and rest, celebration and mourning, good food and…damn good food. These spaces may be owned by Black people or may just be occupied by us. Some are for Black people only, while others center Blackness but are open to people of other races and backgrounds. Black spaces can be complicated — like Blackness. They celebrate Black culture, while also exposing it. Many are progressive and free, while some are repressive and wrought with fear. They are spaces of healing from the trauma and impact of white supremacy and patriarchy. Yet, they also can be spaces where white supremacy and patriarchy live and are perpetuated. Most Black spaces are a combination of all these things…complicated.

But the highest form of Black space is not limited to its physical manifestation. It cannot be conquered by gentrification, the death of Grandmama, or an idiot in the appropriately-named White House. It is our dreams, imaginations, and faith in the future we fight for and believe is possible. The future — how we imagine it, how we get there, what we dream and conjure, the pictures and visuals and poetry and art, the beats and bar, the righteous pain and earned jubilation, the experience and anticipation of power, community, and love — is Black space.

Afrofuturism is defined a ‘cultural aesthetic’. In her book “Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture,” Ytasha L. Womack cites curator and artist Ingrid Lafleur’s understanding of the concept, “I generally define Afrofuturism as a way of imagining possible futures through a black cultural lens.” Afrofuturism is the space in our minds, souls, and spirits where we imagine and envision our future together. How dope is that!

That place of imagination is where I’m most excited to be in community with many of you who are reading these words. I dream of a future for us that is amazing and dynamic and free. I also want to see (and be a part of) your dreams for us.

Let’s envision and imagine and dream together!