Yo, Hermeneutics » default AfroFuturism thread

nomos

Administrator
EDIT: Started this as a request thread but thinking we can do a little more with it
--

Just a request. I'm hoping maybe someone can help me find something. I'm reading a lot right now about black science fiction and afro-futurism. I've pulled together a lot of the foundational stuff over the years and I'm finally going through it in a concerted way.

One piece that I simply can't find, though, is Greg Tate's "Yo Hermeneutics" (about links between sci fi and black music) which I think came out in the Village Voice lit supplement around 1991 or so. Eshun and others reference it but I've seen no trace of it. I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a soft copy somewhere online.

Thank you ;)
 
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nomos

Administrator
cheers mr. sloane. much appreciated. no luck at afrofuturism.net. though i'm wondering if it might have made it's way into his book Flyboy in the Buttermilk which, of course, isn't easy to find.
 

nomos

Administrator
ah, nice. according to someone on an old ILM thread it is in the book. (cheap used copies on amazon) but i could still really use a digital version in the meantime if anyone comes across one.

i'm also waiting for a loaned copy of john akomfrah's 'last angel of history' to arrive as well. looking forward to this: "an engaging and searing examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology." featuring tate, eshun, goldie, clinton, derrick may and more...

i think it aired on channel 4 about 10 years ago. anyone remember it? or seen it since?
 
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boomnoise

♫
ah, nice. according to someone on an old ILM thread it is in the book. (cheap used copies on amazon) but i could still really use a digital version in the meantime if anyone comes across one.

don't suppose you'd mind saying which book, would you please?
 

tate

Brown Sugar
don't suppose you'd mind saying which book, would you please?
He did give the book's title (Flyboy in the Buttermilk) in the post just above the one from which you quoted:

no luck at afrofuturism.net. though i'm wondering if it might have made it's way into his book Flyboy in the Buttermilk which, of course, isn't easy to find.

If anyone is interested, the book was published in 1992 by Simon and Schuster, and is 270 pages. Paul, if your library doesn't have a copy, I could have a photocopy of the book made and send it to you. (for the record, there's no relation between the author and my posting name)
 

boomnoise

♫
He did give the book's title (Flyboy in the Buttermilk) in the post just above the one from which you quoted:



If anyone is interested, the book was published in 1992 by Simon and Schuster, and is 270 pages. Paul, if your library doesn't have a copy, I could have a photocopy of the book made and send it to you. (for the record, there's no relation between the author and my posting name)

sorry. my lazy sunday has obviously extended to not reading properly.
 

tate

Brown Sugar
One piece that I simply can't find, though, is Greg Tate's "Yo Hermeneutics" (about links between sci fi and black music) which I think came out in the Village Voice lit supplement around 1991 or so. Eshun and others reference it but I've seen no trace of it. I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a soft copy somewhere online.
Not sure if this will help, but as far as online versions go, there's a german translation here, though you will need to scroll down to p. 84 of the pdf file to find the beginning of the article (even if you don't read german, you can still check the translation for length, references [there are no footnotes], and other material scattered through the article in English):

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/archiv/Kultur/Kritik/yo_hermeneutics/yo.pdf
 

nomos

Administrator
tate, that's really generous. thanks :) it looks like i've just found a copy though. i hadn't thought to check the other university library in town, but apparently they have it.
 

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
Channel 4 (UK TV channel) broadcast a documentary called Mothership Connection in the mid 90s about afrofuturism - it had interviews with goldie, various detroit people, and (I think) chuck D and george clinton, plus some academics/commentators. I watched it at the time & really enjoyed it. If any other dissensians have it I'm sure it would be of interest to ATFP and I'd love a copy too. No joy on youtube I'm afraid, I just checked.

And try to watch the Sun Ra film Space Is The Place, if you havent seen it. I saw it at the ICA a few years ago. He was one far out cat, as they say in jazz circles. Great performance footage.
 

nomos

Administrator
Thanks for the suggestions Gabba. I looked up Mothership Connection and first ran into a 1998 Clinton concert video, but then found a 1995 doc, also by John Akomfrah (http://www.dfgdocs.com/Directory/Titles/842.aspx). I wonder if that one and Last Angel are versions of the same.

I'll keep an eye out for the Sun Ra one as well. I've only come across the album.

I'd love to see a DVD collection of Black Audio Film Collective works. Handsworth Songs (built around the 1985 Handsworth Riots) is well worth seeing. And if I remember correctly, Mark Stewart and the Maffia contributed music to it.
 
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On a rrelated note...

Whats the P-funk connection if any to the Nation of Islams motherplane/ship ???

Possibly the earliest known black science fiction around and current residence of Elijah Muhammad who apprently was resurrected after his death to be stationed on it.

From the Supreme Wisdom Department of the Nation of Islam.

By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
-------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------

The Mother Plane is made of the finest steel in Asia.
It was made on the Island of Nippon (Japan) in 1929, and also took flight that same year.
Black, Brown, Red and Yellow Scientists built the Mother plane.
The Scientists did not know what they were building.
Her size is Half-mile by Half-mile square
Her shape is oval.
Her speed is up to 9,000 miles per hour
Her flying ability is nine thousand (9,000) miles per hour in any direction, up or down, to or fro, in any direction without making a complete directional turn.
Her contents are 1,500 small circular planes, as the devil calls them, "FLYING SAUCERS."
These small planes carry three (3) bombs each, they also shoot flames of fire.
The Blackmen who pilot these small planes have been taught from the age of six that they are to do a special job.
These pilots can hit any spot in America, blindfolded as the Devil will soon see.
The bombs that the small planes contain weigh two tons each.
They are designed to drill into the EArth upon contact, and drill from one (1) to six (6) miles through stone and rock and to explode, destroying civilization or any living matter (or life) within a fifty (50) mile radius.
After these bombs explode, a poisonous gas is found to snuff out the remaining life, if any still exists.
The purpose of the Mother Plane is to destroy the most wicked place ever to be on the planet Earth at any time (america, the Great Mystery Babylon).
Her position is 40 miles out from the Earth´s sphere.
She holds this position from 6 to 12 months at a time. When this time is up, the Mother Plane comes into the atmosphere of the Earth; it projects huge suction pipes out into the atmosphere to take in fresh air for our Brothers inside, then she retakes her position.
At the dropping of the bombs, the flames will reach twelve (12) miles, in all directions.
When the Destruction comes, America will burn 390 years and take 610 years to cool off. The Great Mystery Babylon (America) will perish in the flames of fire. Allah will even cause the air in which we breathe to ignite along with the atmosphere.

The Mother Plane
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers about a "Mother Plane" or "Wheel", a UFO he taught that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the Book of Ezekiel, in the Hebrew Bible.

Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. Book of Ezekiel Chapter 1:15-18, Bible, English Standard Version
 

nomos

Administrator
Hadn't seen that, but the NOI's founding myth of Dr. Yacub's island (where the 'big-headed' mad scientist engineered a set of non-black races from man's 'recessive germs') certainly has to figure into black American SF in some way.
 

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
I'd love to see a DVD collection of Black Audio Film Collective works. Handsworth Songs (built around the 1985 Handsworth Riots) is well worth seeing. And if I remember correctly, Mark Stewart and the Maffia contributed music to it.

Not evidence of a DVD release as such, but September's Frieze magazine has an article by The Otolith Group (Kodwo Eshun & Anjalika Sagar {& others?}) called Seven Songs for Walid, Christine, Tony, Rabih, Lina, Akram and Lamia, a list of "some of the films that inspire and provoke us... before you watch them please spare four minutes to listen to Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs'." In the paragraph devoted to Who Needs A Heart (1992 dir. John Akomfrah) they tantalisingly mention that:

The Otolith Group said:
We are working on the first retrospective of the Black Audio Film Collective, to premiere at FACT and Arnolfini in 2007 and Whitechapel 2008. In March this year we held a mini-retrospective of three BAFC films in Beirut.
 

Mr H

Active member
Thanks for the suggestions Gabba. I looked up Mothership Connection and first ran into a 1998 Clinton concert video, but then found a 1995 doc, also by John Akomfrah (http://www.dfgdocs.com/Directory/Titles/842.aspx). I wonder if that one and Last Angel are versions of the same.

I'll keep an eye out for the Sun Ra one as well. I've only come across the album.

I'd love to see a DVD collection of Black Audio Film Collective works. Handsworth Songs (built around the 1985 Handsworth Riots) is well worth seeing. And if I remember correctly, Mark Stewart and the Maffia contributed music to it.

There was a really good George Clinton documentary on BBC2 a couple of weeks ago but don't think it was called Mothership Connection. It was the week after they showed the Sun Ra doc 'Space is the Place' so perhaps the Afro-futurist discourse has reached the Beeb. I've got a feeling that Don Letts was involved in the latter.

I second that plea for a DVD collection of BAFC films. Films like 'Last Angel of History' are available for educational use for £70 I believe and it'd be great if they were available at a slightly cheaper cost.

With regard to the connection between Afro-Futurism & the NOI, isn't the idea of race migration quite separatist?
 

nomos

Administrator
Thanks Octopus? - I hadn't noticed that one.

Also available at The Wire site:

Greg Sinker's foundational piece "Loving the Alien" (1992)
http://www.thewire.co.uk/archive/essays/black_science_fiction.html

Ian Penman "Black Secret Tricknology" (1995)
http://www.thewire.co.uk/archive/essays/tricky.html

And elsewhere:

Erik Davis "Roots and Wires: Polyrhythmic Cyberspace and the Black Electronic" (1996)
http://www.techgnosis.com/cyberconf.html

Kodwo Eshun "Further Thoughts on Afrofuturism" (2003)
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/new_centennial_review/v003/3.2eshun.html
A useful follow-up to his earlier work. Requires login.
 
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