Ekow Eshun on Afrofuturism, Black Speculative Thought, and In the Black Fantastic

Ekow Eshun, author of In the Black Fantastic, joins Toward Inclusive Excellence editor-in-chief Alexia Hudson-Ward to discuss the book’s development and how it acts as a mode of possibility for Black freedom and liberation. A companion piece to the 2022 art exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery, In the Black Fantastic weaves together fables, myths, science fiction, and speculative fiction from throughout the African diaspora to explore Black culture and lived experiences. The title includes various creative disciplines—music, film, visual art, and more—that pull from African stories and knowledge systems to demonstrate the freedom of Black speculative thought and how it can inform the everyday.

In the conversation, Ekow describes Black speculative fiction and Afrofuturism as forms of resistance, highlighting the story of the Flying Africans and how it’s alluded to in contemporary works like Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Lemonade by Beyonce, and Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler. Further, Ekow explains how Black creatives occupying the traditionally exclusionary genres of science fiction and the supernatural bring forth non-Western forms of knowledge. Positioning identity as a fluid way of being, Ekow denounces reductive views of race and the binaries that have long restricted and reduced Black interiority. Amidst ongoing threats to DEI efforts, Ekow underscores the power of inclusivity demonstrated in his book and how it offers hope for the future in its multitudes of Black dreaming without disregarding past and continuing struggles for racial equality.

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Find Ekow's book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/978026204725...

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Timestamps:
00:00: Welcome

00:12: Would you describe “The Black Fantastic” for our audience?

02:43: You discuss the diasporian connection of the Black Fantastic, which makes me think of some of the stories that I was raised on as an African American child, such as the Flying African. How do you think about these ideas?

09:24: Your book is a celebration of how Black artists have transcended Westernized philosophies of success and progress by situating themselves into traditionally exclusionary realms, such as the scientific, science fiction, and the supernatural. Why was it important to you to capture this transcendence through Black artistry in your book?

15:16: With the encyclopedic level of intellectualism, spiritualism, and artistry that’s in your book, how did you curate the number of individuals to include?

20:29: Your book pulls together interdisciplinary threads to assert the necessity of learning in an inclusive way. Against the backdrop of the current anti-DEI movement in the United States, could you talk about how inclusivity guided your book?

26:07: How do themes of Afrofuturism and speculative fiction in your book further our current understanding of identity and the possibilities of a fantastic future for people of African descent?

31:45: How do you think of the Black Fantastic as helping to contribute to an elevated discourse that moves us out of the defensive and shifts us back to thinking about freedom and liberation?

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