Before “Black Panther”: Afrofuturism
The Guardian tells us: ‘While Black Panther has carved its place in history books as the first major superhero blockbuster with a black director and almost entirely black cast, it’s also notable for bringing afrofuturism to the mainstream. The film’s African sci-fi aesthetic has taken cues from a movement which has been gaining momentum since Sun Ra took the jazz stage in the 1950s. It’s a discipline that includes literature, music, fashion and art, and in a new exhibition called In Their Own Form, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago on 12 April, the work of 13 black artists is being celebrated. They used key afrofuturist themes of time travel, technology and heroism long before Marvel’s adventure hit the silver screen.’
