There's a new, multi-site, month-long festival to explore across Iowa City this winter that centers on Afrofuturistic art, fashion, literature, media and community dialogue.
Black Future Fest: Parables of the Future invites residents of all ages to reimagine Black life through Afrofuturism, a creative and philosophical movement that blends Black history, culture, technology and speculative futures.
According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Afrofuturism “expresses notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life.”
“[Afrofuturism is] basically a reimagining of the Black experience,” organizer LaTasha DeLoach said on IPR's Talk of Iowa. “One of the arguments is that the Black experience does not have to always be shaped by slavery and oppression and Jim Crow. We really want to move beyond, especially when we look at the future.”
Black Future Fest launched on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a day of service at the Iowa City Senior Center. From there, programming will fill libraries, galleries, theaters and community spaces throughout January and February.
Highlights include an educational exhibit at Public Space One, art galleries, hands-on workshops for residents of all ages, film screenings and a fashion and art showcase titled “Love & Liberation.”
The public can also participate in a citywide reading of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred and Parable of the Sower. Venise Berry, a University of Iowa professor of journalism and African American Studies who will sit on a panel discussing Butler's work, sees the community book club as especially timely.
“I really think that we all need to begin to see how the world is evolving," Berry said on Talk of Iowa. "The African American experience is not a separate experience. We are all linked together, and we all need to be thinking about those issues of survival and transformation and understanding."
DeLoach said Afrofuturism is a means of reimagination that has spurred thrilling narratives about Black life, from literature to film, including the fictional, technologically advanced nation of Wakanda in Marvel's Black Panther.
“What I like about Afrofuturism is there’s not necessarily a rule around it,” DeLoach said. “You’re projecting what you hope to see in the future — not forgetting the past, connecting those things — but you get to make it up. You get to make up what liberation and freedom looks like for yourself, for your people.”
Berry sees Black Future Fest as part of a longer legacy in Iowa City and at the University of Iowa, which was among the first institutions in the nation to admit African Americans and establish an African American Studies department. She said that history makes the festival's forward-looking focus especially meaningful amid ongoing debates over DEI.
All Black Future Fest events are open to the public.
All events
January - Feburary: Gallery and Afrofuturism Displays
Afrofuturism displays will be in place at PS1 Library, Iowa City Public Library, and partner sites
Jan 29. Book Club
Noon at the Iowa City Senior Center and Zoom
Jan. 31: PS1 Open House — “What Is Afrofuturism?”
3 – 5 p.m. at the PS1 Close House
Feb. 6: ICSC film screening —"The Black Beyond Trilogy"
Noon – 1:30 p.m. at the Iowa City Senior Center
Feb. 12: Book Club
Noon at the Iowa City Senior Center and Zoom
Feb. 12: FilmScene — Something in the Water: Afrofuturist Short Films, Film Screening & Filmmaker Panel
6:30 p.m. at FilmScene at Chauncey
Feb. 14: “Love & Liberation” Gallery Opening, Fashion & Art Showcase
3:30 – 6 p.m. at the Iowa City Senior Center
Feb. 14: Octavia Butler Book Panel (Kindred & Parable of the Sower)
1:30 – 3 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library
Feb. 19: Dream City Community Forum
6 - 8 p.m. at Dream City
