Afropresentism

The earliest definition of Afropresentism, coined by Neema Githere in 2017, was “a genre fusing archival, documentary, and fine arts on and through new media in the expression of an Afrofuturist lived reality”. The term has since evolved to encompass a more somatic* practice:

“Afropresentism is you channeling your ancestry through every technology at your disposal—meditation, conversation, love, the internet —and turning absolutely everything into a Portal that takes you precisely where you need to be, in this moment, towards the next. Until finally, the space between the dream and the memory collapses into being your reality—now.”

Drawing on Black diasporic technologies of improvisation and incantation, alongside frameworks of speculative/ritual design, this track will invite participants to construct interventions for the here and now. Participants in this track will leave armed with tools to express and untangle their digital enmeshment as well as reclaim a healthy relationship to time in a world increasingly governed by the fleeting waves of virality.

*somatic: relating to the body, especially as distinct from the mind.

Call for participation:

As Black diasporic people living in the age of Big Data, how do we navigate what Kodwo Eshun terms the “Age of Total Recall”?

Coming together as archeologists of buried histories and architects of the future’s fossils, we meet in the Present tasked with alchemizing our displacement into transcendence. 

We invite proposals from Black/Afrodiasporic theorists, musicians, organizers, lovers, artists, archivists and cultural workers who are interested in interrogating the afterlives of Afrofuturism and putting time travel into practice. We encourage proposals that are rooted in ritual/ancestral technology, center embodiment, and incorporate multi-sensorial experiences — take us into your tools of presence. 

We resist the expectation of expertise – any and all dreamers of all ages are encouraged to apply!

Contact Lead Organizer for more info

Neema Githere at neemagithere[@]gmail.com