Two New School student organizations, Students for the African Diaspora (SOAD) and Project Africa, have put together the second annual Afrofuturism Conference this weekend, May 1-3.. This conference is not what you are used to– think seminar-style forums with musical performances throughout the day. The opening night of the three day event is taking place at Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts in Brooklyn, starting at 5:30 The tagline is “Designing new narratives to empower the African Diaspora”. The remaining two days will be held at The New School’s University Center.
The event is entirely student-led and organized, and took several months of planning to come to fruition. The aim of the conference is to bring together brilliant thinkers, such as keynote speaker Ytsasha Womack an author and filmmaker, and performing artist Davi. The organizers have separated each day by type of activity. . Friday, May 1st is called the “Think” Day, Saturday May 2nd is “Construct” Day and Sunday May 3rd is “Shape” Day.
This separation is intended to allow for all creative minds to explore Afrofuturism as a cultural aesthetic and a literary portal for the radical emancipation of people of color. Michael Aryee, one of the lead organizers of the conference, also ran last year’s Design Conference which was notably interactive, and the group hopes to craft a similarly dynamic program–with your participation. There will be vendors from all around New York City, so make sure to have your wallets ready! With over 1800 attendees RSVPing on Facebook, the event is promises to be a hit.