Last year in october, we subtitled Sun Ra’s unique ‘Space is the Place’ in French. It was about time we share it with you ! / Though, as we are the talkative type it is also the opportunity to share with you few thoughts we developed on a speech in Johannesburg at the occasion of Black Portraitures III Conferences (november 2016).
Tag: B(l)ackwardness
ESSAYS / PROSPECTIVE
UNDERCOVER AFROFUTURISM (1/2)
Last year in october, we subtitled Sun Ra’s unique ‘Space is the Place’ in French. It was about time we share it with you ! / Though, as we are the talkative type it is also the opportunity to share with you few thoughts we developed on a speech in Johannesburg at the occasion of Black Portraitures III Conferences (november 2016).
The Importance of Backwardness – 1/2
“Late Countries”,”Underdeveloped Countries”, “South” & “Souths”, “Third World”, “Fourth World”,”Sad Tropics” or “Land of Good Hopes”… and so many other words – more or less politically correct – are used to designate “lagging”, late or “backward” spaces…
The Importance of Backwardness – 2/2
“Late Countries”,”Underdeveloped Countries”, “South” & “Souths”, “Third World”, “Fourth World”,”Sad Tropics” or “Land of Good Hopes”… and so many other words – more or less politically correct – are used to designate “lagging”, late or “backward” spaces…
Of the appropriation of space in shifting Africa
With regard to the environment and food, two major challenges for the continent, would new technologies be a solution?
On love and violence
« All I really remember is the pain, the unspeakable pain […]. Yes, it does indeed mean something ― something unspeakable ― to be born, in a white country, an Anglo-Teutonic, antisexual country, black. You very soon, without knowing it, give up all hope of communion. Black people, mainly, look down or look up but do not look at each other, not at you, and white people, mainly, look away. And the universe is simply a sounding drum ; there is no way whatever, so it seemed then and has sometimes seemed since, to get through a life, to love your wife and children, or your friends, or your mother and father, or to be loved. »
BLACK(S) TO THE FUTURE FESTIVAL
In case you missed it : Black(s) to the future is launching its first festival in few days in Paris, the 2nd & 3rd of july !
Ethiopian condominiums : “prisons” or golden cities ?
Since 2005, the Ethiopian government has embarked on a broad policy of urban renewal and construction. To meet the growing demand for housing in the Ethiopian cities, he has built nearly 80,000 condominiums. The majority are located in Addis Ababa […]. 63,677 families have already received an apartment in a condominium. The town hall distributes them through a lottery system. Those who have won the lottery then have 30 years to pay 40,000 birr which are about 1800 euros, required by the city to become the proud owners of their new apartments. (Slate Africa)
Interview w/ Mark Dery (4/4) : alternative futures & the (ambiguous) place of Africa
Following a not-that-unlikely-anymore forecast; the new promises of nanotechnologies and Artificial Intelligence appear to make the threat of Human disappearance bound to happen. This said, the announcements made from transhumanists to Singularity upholder should be more than urgently put through a critical riddle…
Expensive Luanda
“For the past two years, Luanda—not Tokyo, Moscow, or Hong Kong—has been named, by the global consulting firm Mercer, as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates. Luanda’s lure, and its treasure, is oil. […] In the past decade, tens of thousands of American and European employees of international oil conglomerates, fortified by generous cost-of-living allowances, have descended on Luanda. […] The country now produces 1.8 million barrels of oil a day; in Africa, only Nigeria produces and exports more. The boom has transformed a failed state into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.”
Interview w/ Mark Dery (3/4) : The misleading promises of one obvious bright future
After he gave us his view on “What stands beyond Afrofuturism?”(2/4) Mark Dery urges us not to forget that the core essence of Afrofuturism was of a constant combat by all means, of a black community seeing itself denied any technological ability (3/4).
Afrofuturism : the time overlapse
Afrofuturism is said to be an art and litterature movement. But is it way more : it is a paradigm, an ‘alter’ representation of the world. Not only does it challenge one of the founding principles of our modern societies organization – time -, but it also puts in doubts the very essence of what we are ‘per se’ – human beings.