Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero

Throughout history, people of the African diaspora have been at the forefront of civilization; therefore culture and technology.  Afrofuturism explores the cultural aesthetic, philosophy, visual language and performative rituals that intersect the diaspora beyond space and time. 

“ To its credit, New Orleans is also one of the most Africanized spaces in North America--culturally, spiritually and psychically.  Moreover, as robustly black space, there are and have been widely diverse and divergent expressions and gradations of the city’s blackness, just like the hues of its people.” 

-James B. Borders IV, Marking Time, Making Place- An essential chronology of black in New Orleans since 1718

New Orleans was the second largest port in what is now called the United States during the transatlantic slave trade.  In 1718, the first black people known to live in Bulbancha (loosely translates to “ land of many tongues”- home to 82 different indigenous tribes) now called  New Orleans were a couple of enslaved Africans names Jorge and Marie. 

Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero considers land and black spaces as a repository of black life and situates it in the contemporary. The development of what is now known as futurism was grounded here in Treme, on the Villa Meilleur planatain home, the bricks made by women of color who got the earth from the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain and the men who lay bricks and brought not only their skills, but technology in agriculture, carpentry, art and culture,  left their spirit of ingenuity which permeates public space in New Orleans today. The development of blackness in New Orleans through black cultural traditions such as the Secondline, Black Masking Indian culture, bounce, utilize black bodies to search for freedom, free spaces, exist between the tensions of now and then. These black bodies are activated in public spaces and act as the chi (ki) of the city, black spaces function as acupuncture points in the city’s body, healing it of its stagnation and bringing fresh oxygenated blood to various neighborhoods through music, metal work, food, dance and movement. 

In Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero, contemporary artists relate, revert, invert and reject notions of blackness and create cultural vortex of alter egos using the black imagination and social movements as the practice of building community. 

2018 + 2019 Chief Curator - Gia M. Hamilton

Thomas Sankara said,“You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. “It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.”

Afrofuturism is a gateway for diverse creativity; it is a driving force to black liberation through breaking out of the systematic confinements and advancement. By evolving through science and technology, we are speaking ourselves into a future where we are included in the narrative.

Curatorial Fellow: Cammy White