Overview

The spaces revealed through the practice of time manipulation in Black cultures lend themselves to storytelling, a time-hopping process that integrates memory and community.

Drawing on disparate philosophies and science behind electronic beat-making, lyricism, dance, memory, myth, and cosmology in the African and African Disaporic traditions, this book seeks to demonstrate relationships between rhythm, space, and ways of being as an articulation of futures and alternate realities made present.
 
Infused with author and Afrofuturist educator Ytasha Womack’s own practice and contemplations, this book, rich in anecdotes, will interrogate Afrofuturism as an experience that unfolds through combinations of being a maker and theorist. Readers will take a creative journey that allows them to bring Afrofuturist practices into their own lives. The goal is to expand imagination, rootedness, and possibility.
 
From Senegalese poet, political theorist, and politician Leopold Sedar Senghor’s ideas on the plastic arts and Negritude to writer Malidoma Patrese Some’s articulation of water symbolism in Burkina Faso; from tap dance exercises to composer, DJ, and recording artist King Britt’s Blacktronica, The Afrofuturist Evolution aims to demonstrate Afrofuturism as embodied theory in practice.

This book—in simple, straightforward, but powerful ways—invites readers to bring these practices into their own lives.  
 
 

Reviews

“The Afrofuturist Evolution is an incredibly fantastic body of work that charges not just through Afrofuturism but into Afropantheology, cosmology, and other schools of thought. . . . A must-read for anyone looking to understand Black scapes, cultures, knowledge, living, and being.” —OGHENECHOVWE DONALD EKPEKI, Nebula-winning speculative fiction writer/editor and founder of Afropantheology

“A rebellious and instantly enjoyable trip, a reverberating ode to remembering, and an aphrodisiac of conjuring dream worlds. Ytasha takes us on a red pill, blue pill rabbit hole exploration and understanding of the Afro-ness in futurism. Afrofuturefunkadelicexpialidocious!” —NONA HENDRYX, musician, producer, author, and activist

“Ytasha Womack shows us that our relationship with space, time, and the idea of the multiverse isn’t just about equations—it’s also about imagination, artistic creation, and our spiritual sensibilities. We are lucky to have a griot, a storyteller, like Ytasha Womack as our guide into the Afrofuturist cosmos.” —CHANDA PRESCOD-WEINSTEIN, theoretical physicist and author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

“The Afrofuturist Evolution invites the reader to consider Afrofuturism as a tool of self-growth while gaining fresh insight into Afrofuturism as a site of reckoning, healing, and infinite possibilities for Black people. An eye-opening read for beginners and seasoned Afrofuturists alike.” —REGINA N. BRADLEY, PhD, associate professor, English and African Diaspora studies, Kennesaw State University, and author of Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip Hop South and Boondock Kollage: Stories from the Hip Hop South

“From family histories to the clothes on our backs, from childhood memories to our thoughts of tomorrow, The Afrofuturist Evolution mixes home-brewed philosophies with exciting ideas. Instead of fearing the future, Womack strives to prepare us for better days.” —MICHAEL A. GONZALES, cultural critic, essayist, and short story scribe for CrimeReads, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Oldster Magazine