Afrofuturism and Steampunk

Jade Rogers

Afrofuturism imagines possible futures but also reimagines possible pasts. What if there were no barriers to social, political or educational pursuits for Black people in the 1880’s United States? What if we took the stories of cowboys, westward expansion, the British Victorian era, The Gilded Age, the industrial revolution, and the explosion of academia, technology and scientific advancement and reinserted the Black people who made the stories great but have been left in the margins of History? This presentation will look at the intersections of Afrofuturism and Steampunk, the vibrant past we draw from, how it manifests today and explore the world of possibilities that this field of thought allows us to explore.