BCAF returns again to Comic-Con with Afrofuturism panel, "Before Black Panther: Afrofuturism in Comics/Sequential Art and the History of the Future."
Aaron Grizzell (NorcalMLK Foundation) moderates this panel on the cultural production space known as Afrofuturism and the growing interest in this aspect of critical making. Panelists John Jennings (Abrams Megascope), Ytasha Womack (Afrofuturism, Rayla), Stanford Carpenter (Black & Brown Comix Arts Festival), and Regina Bradley (Kennesaw State University) examine several comics, cartoons, and sequential art narratives that were created before the Black Panther was imagined by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966. The goal is to highlight the need for restoring, archiving, and propagating Black protagonists and their use of futuristic technologies and repositioning Afrospeculative comic books alongside music, literature, fashion, and film as a pillar of Afrofuturism.