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There is a powerful tradition of utopian practice and thought in African American communities. From black towns like Mound Bayou, Mississippi to the lyrical imaginings of Afrofuturism Black utopias have been a potent response to racial inequality and suffering. At this moment of rupture, with the related crises of the pandemic, racial uprisings, climate change and economic decline, Black Utopian thought and practice offer alternative paths to the future. On Thursday, November 19 leading scholars and artists in the field of Afrofuturism and Black Utopia will engage in a conversation about the role Black Utopian thinking can play at this crucial moment.

Participants:
Organizer and moderator: Victoria W. Wolcott, Professor of History, University at Buffalo
Julian C. Chambliss, Professor of English with an appointment in History and the Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum at Michigan State University
John Jennings, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, UC Riverside
Alex Zamalin, Director of African American Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Detroit, Mercy.

*ZOOM meeting information will be sent to registrants one day before the event.

Presented by the UB Humanities Institute, in conjunction with Humanities New York, as part of the Buffalo Humanities Festival: Utopia digital programming for 2020-21.