Carnegie Hall's Afrofuturism Festival Continues in March 2022

This March, Carnegie Hall continues its Afrofuturism citywide festival that explores the thriving aesthetic and cultural movement that looks to the future through a Black cultural lens, intersecting music, visual art, literature, politics, science fiction, and technology. At Carnegie Hall, festival concerts by celebrated artists explore Afrofuturism's boundless sonic essence through jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronic music, and more.

In addition, more than 70 leading cultural institutions from across New York City and beyond extend the scope of the festival with a diverse array of multidisciplinary public programming that explores African and African diasporic philosophies, speculative fiction, mythology, comics. The festival partner events include a just-announced talk exploring the career and work of George Clinton, as well as exhibitions, films, dance, and more.

March festival performances at Carnegie Hall begin with a double bill featuring Chimurenga Renaissance and Fatoumata Diawara on Friday, March 4 at 9:30 p.m. Comprised of Tendai "Baba" Maraire and guitarist Hussein Kalonji, Chimurenga Renaissance brilliantly blends experimental hip-hop with traditional African music to create a captivating and consistently surprising "trans-Atlantic mélange" (NPR) that speaks to a range of postmodern and politically conscious sensibilities. Also featured on the program is Grammy Award-nominated singer, songwriter, and actress Fatoumata Diawara-one of the most relevant female voices of the new generation of African artists-who covers a gamut of styles from blues, funk, and rock to syncopated Afro-pop, always honoring her past, but with a sound and message that confidently looks to the future. (Zankel Hall)

Carl Craig Synthesizer Ensemble takes the stage on Saturday, March 19 at 10:00 p.m. A creative visionary, Grammy Award-nominated composer, world-class DJ, and founder of seminal record label Planet E Communications, Carl Craig is an elder statesman in the world of electronic music production and performance-a true legend of the genre. The common thread that runs through Craig's broad musical canon is a resounding fascination with futurism, as embodied by the Synthesizer Ensemble in which he imbues a flexible and collaborative human touch into the more synth-driven, pulsing traits of techno. (Zankel Hall)

Grammy Award-nominated trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Theo Croker closes out the festival concerts at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, March 26 at 9:00 p.m. with a performance that blends post-bop, funk, and electronic music in a sonic celebration of Afro-origin. As showcased in his new album BLK2LIFE || A FUTURE PAST, Croker explores the forgotten hero's journey toward self-actualization within the universal origins of Blackness. (Zankel Hall)

To create this imaginative festival, Carnegie Hall's programming team brought together an Afrofuturism Curatorial Council, made up of five of the most knowledgeable authorities in the Afrofuturism field-Reynaldo Anderson, King James Britt, Louis Chude-Sokei, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Ytasha L. Womack-to help shape the festival's line-up of events.

"In developing this festival over the past several years, it's been exciting to see how Afrofuturism embraces such a diverse array of art forms and the intrinsic role it plays in pop culture," said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall's Executive and Artistic Director. "With the incredibly valuable guidance of our Afrofuturism Curatorial Council and in collaboration with our festival partners, we look forward to taking audiences on a vivid journey into this forward-looking theme. With Afrofuturism, we invite people to join us on a journey of discovery, to be inspired, and to imagine new and empowering visions of the future."

HIGHLIGHTS OF AFROFUTURISM FESTIVAL PARTNER EVENTS IN MARCH

Afrofuturism festival partner programming features a diverse array of events in person and online in multiple genres presented by diverse cultural and academic institutions across the city and beyond. For a full list of festival partners, please see below.

Funk-tastic: The Art and Futuristic Vision of George Clinton and Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky
March 1 at 7:00 p.m., Online: bsam-art.com

Presented by Black Speculative Arts Movement and the Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University, this roundtable discussion explores the career and work of George Clinton in relation to Afrofuturism, his artistic influence on the genre and connection to the hip-hop motifs and Afrofuturist work of Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky. The discussion also touches on Clinton's current success as a visual artist and how he linked his "flow" as a futuristic Funk innovator to his artistic practice. DJ Spooky discusses his work and current projects with art and education institutions in Africa.

Afrofuturist Cinema: Infinity and Possibility ... Afrofuturist Short Films
March 2 at 6:30 p.m., New York Film Academy, 17 Battery Place, New York, NY,
Online: nyfa.edu/afrofuturism

This event-available in person and online-showcases four Afrofuturist films: Opal and Battledream Chronicle by Alain Bidard, Hardware by David Kirkman, and The Diselfunk Show by Tim and Jim Fielder. A post-screening panel moderated by Randall Dottin, chair of screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, explores the impulse and desire to create Afrofuturist cinema.

Can Science Fiction Bring the World Together?

March 2 at 7:30 p.m.,
Online: chinainstitute.org/upcoming-events/list

For this program, the China Institute welcomes authors from a variety of global futurism literary traditions who are redefining science fiction on the world stage and using the magical power of storytelling to promote cross-cultural understanding and strengthen the global community.

AI to the Future: Why African Leaders Matter

March 3 at 12:00 p.m., Online: facebook.com/theafricacenter

Presented by The Africa Center, AI to the Future: Why African Leaders Matter explores how Africans on the continent and in the diaspora are contributing to the field of artificial intelligence and building a pipeline of talent of people of African descent. Speakers include Mutale Nkonde, Jackie Mwaniki, and Vukosi Marivate, moderated by Uzodinma Iweala.

Black Speculative Literature: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Race, and Reality
March 7-28 (Mondays) at 6:30 p.m., Online: thebrooklyninstitute.com

This four-week online course explores the major works of Black Speculative Literature, thinking about the meaning of a literary field that assumes the inadequacy of reality-or realism-as the sole category for remembering, thinking, and living in the 21st century.

Exploring Black Star: An Instagram Live Event

March 9 at 12:00 p.m., Online: instagram.com/soi128

Presented by the Society of Illustrators, this event features Eric Glover and Arielle Jovellanos, the creative team behind the Abrams Megascope book Black Star, in conversation on Instagram Live. Topics include adapting a screenplay into a graphic novel, inspirations, and the process for bringing the book to life.

Afrofuturism and the Francophone World

March 11 at 3:00 p.m.,
Centro Cívico Cultural Dominicano, 619 West 145th Street, New York, NY

Emerging artists, designers, and filmmakers from the West Indies and French-speaking African countries showcase 21st-century contemporary expressions of Afrofuturism, emphasizing how important it is to integrate, educated, and share Black creativity within the entire diaspora to the world. Presented by the Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University, and the United African Association, this one-day symposium will feature a fashion show, art exhibition, and roundtable discussion on the phenomenon of Afrofuturism in the Black Francophone community.

WILD

March 17 at 7:00 p.m., Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd., New York, NY

Loosely inspired by Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are children's book, WILD follows a young boy's journey as he celebrates his 14th birthday while incarcerated. Frequently harnessing the power of his imagination, he transports himself to an alternate universe where he is not treated like a wild animal. This cutting-edge ballet utilizes physical movement to illustrate and honor the history of Black bodies moving through space while encountering oppression.

Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE

March 22-27, various times, The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY

Returning to the Joyce for their 2022 home season, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE offers a compelling program, bringing a spiritual awareness that touches the human heart. Acclaimed choreographer Ronald K. Brown utilizes music and movement rich in thematic content drawn from the African and African American diaspora. His works are performed with a depth of physicality that reflects Brown's meditations on cultural legacy, community, and socio-political history. The brilliance of Ron's blended style is revealed in works such as "Upside Down," "Come Ye," featuring the music of artist-activists Oumou Sangare, Fela Kuti, and Nina Simone; and the long-awaited return of the hauntingly beautiful work "Ebony Magazine to a Village" with original music by longtime EVIDENCE collaborator Wunmi Olaiya.

Luedji Luna: Bom Mesmo É Estar Debaixo D'Água

March 25 at 7:00 p.m., Online: as-coa.org/music

This online event from the Americas Society features singer and composer Luedji Luna's music, which combines Brazilian sounds, African rhythms, jazz, and socially conscious lyrics related to Black identity. For this presentation, Luna presents a new video of her Latin Grammy-nominated album Bom Mesmo É Estar Debaixo D'Água (What's Really Good Is Being Underwater).

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room

Ongoing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room transforms a 19th-century domestic interior into a space untethered by time. Like traditional period rooms, the installation is a fabrication of a domestic space that assembles furnishings and works of art to represent a fixed moment in time. However, this new space unsettles the very idea of a period room by embracing the African and African diasporic belief that the past, present, and future are interconnected. Powered by Afrofuturism, this speculative home is activated through vision, sound, and storytelling, furnished with a range of works from The Met collection-from Bamileke beadwork and 19th-century American ceramics to contemporary art and design-that foreground generations of Black creativity.

Need more Broadway Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...