Just as Quare As You Wanna Be: On Afrofuturism as Cultural Aesthetic and Method for Liberating Black Bodies

Duration: 32 mins 44 secs

Share this media item:

Embed this media item:

<iframe width="_width_" height="_height_" src="https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2669505/embed" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Choose size:

About this item

Available Formats

About this item

Description:	Informed by Black feminism, queer theory of colour, and Afrofuturist theory, Wynn will present a new series of artwork exploring the myth of Drexciya, a mythology created by a late 1990s Detroit band of the same name, who envisioned a half-aquatic/half-human create emerging from the enslaved Africans who were tossed overboard during the middle passage. Of this new series of artwork, they envision creating a new narrative in the mid-Atlantic, disrupting the current archive of the Middle Passage. Looking to the history of erasure of Black femmes, queer, and gender non-conforming people as a form of violence, they will discuss the ways in which water has shaped their cultural production and it's connection to fantastical forms like Afrofuturism. Charlena will also discuss the moves they have made to theorize Afrofuturism as a liberatory project for African peoples everywhere. Charlena M. Wynn is an artist, graduate student, and scholar from the United States, interested in African DIaspora art and Afrofuturism as a method of decolonizing modernist curatorial and art education practices. Born and raised in the Southern United States, they are deeply connected to their southern identity as a Black queer artist and use these experiences in their artwork. In a world where Black, queer, fat, and disabled bodies are not valued, Charlena M. Wynn is informed by Afrofuturist philosophy, not only as a cultural aesthetic but philosophy of history informed by African Diasporic epistemologies.

Description:

Informed by Black feminism, queer theory of colour, and Afrofuturist theory, Wynn will present a new series of artwork exploring the myth of Drexciya, a mythology created by a late 1990s Detroit band of the same name, who envisioned a half-aquatic/half-human create emerging from the enslaved Africans who were tossed overboard during the middle passage. Of this new series of artwork, they envision creating a new narrative in the mid-Atlantic, disrupting the current archive of the Middle Passage.

Looking to the history of erasure of Black femmes, queer, and gender non-conforming people as a form of violence, they will discuss the ways in which water has shaped their cultural production and it's connection to fantastical forms like Afrofuturism. Charlena will also discuss the moves they have made to theorize Afrofuturism as a liberatory project for African peoples everywhere.

Charlena M. Wynn is an artist, graduate student, and scholar from the United States, interested in African DIaspora art and Afrofuturism as a method of decolonizing modernist curatorial and art education practices. Born and raised in the Southern United States, they are deeply connected to their southern identity as a Black queer artist and use these experiences in their artwork. In a world where Black, queer, fat, and disabled bodies are not valued, Charlena M. Wynn is informed by Afrofuturist philosophy, not only as a cultural aesthetic but philosophy of history informed by African Diasporic epistemologies.

Created:

2018-02-14 17:09

Collection:

Arts & Creativities Research Group

Publisher:

University of Cambridge

Faculty of Education

Language:

eng (English)

Keywords:

Quare; Afrofuturism; Black; queer; gender non-conforming; Drexciya;

Credits:

Person:

Charlena M. Wynn

Available Formats

Format	Quality	Bitrate	Size
MPEG-4 Video	1280x720	1.91 Mbits/sec	469.72 MB	View
WebM	1280x720	2.03 Mbits/sec	499.49 MB	View
MP3	44100 Hz	249.84 kbits/sec	59.96 MB	Listen
Auto *	(Allows browser to choose a format it supports)