Harare Review of Books

304 pages.

First published in September 2022.

Genre: Non-Fiction.

Introduction by Ekow Eshun.
Essays by: Ekow Eshun, Kameelah L Martin, Michelle D. Commander.
Sections:

1. Invocation: A Summoning of Spirits
2. Migration: Journeys Across Sea and Space
3. Liberation: Dreams of Freedom

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Thank you to MIT Press and to NetGalley for access to this eARC.

The Black Fantastic is a parallel universe, the entrance to which is mediated by visionary creatives: fiction writers, painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers, artists, musicians, dancers, and even politicians. It’s an umbrella term that does not find the distinctions between, say, Afrofuturism, Afrojujuism, and Africanfuturism, at all problematic, or even challenging. It’s the Black Imaginary, existing quite apart from whiteness, never defined or limited by it. It’s African mythology with its arms around Africa, encompassing its Diaspora, and imagining their future.

In The Black Fantastic was published to expand on the exhibition by the same name which ran at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK, from June to September 2022. Ekow Eshun was the curator of this, the UK’s first major show featuring art by the following Black creators: Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Rashad Newsome, Chris Ofili, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Lina Iris Viktor, and Kara Walker. Linkages, an important Black value, are an important part of the work: across time, space, and artistic genre.

In the book, through essays and using pictures, the theme of the Black Fantastic is shown across Africa and the Diaspora; from music (Beyonce, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane) to writing (Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor); on album covers (GZA, Osibisa, Herbie Hancock), and in paintings (Bob Thompson, Jeff Donaldson, Alma Woodsey Thomas); in the story of the Afronauts, from Nkoloso’s vision, to its descendant works (Christine de Middel’s book, sculpture by Gerald Machona, Yinka Onibare).

It’s impossible for me to write about this volume without using superlatives. It’s a journey, a revelation, a vision, and still, also, an everyday reference book for a creative language. It’s a way into a way of seeing the world and the creative output of Black people in new ways, as part of a whole. It’s an entire way of reimagining the future (“THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE” — Alisha Wormsley).

Read/Don’t read: Absolutely READ. Buy a copy to drool over, and to show off, or start conversations.
Also read: Black Futures by Kimberly Drew, Jenna Wortham.