ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, and EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. a Dissertation Submitted to the F
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ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, AND EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Spring 2020 © 2020 Clayton D. Colmon Jr. All Rights Reserved ON BECOMING: AFROFUTURISM, WORLDBUILDING, AND EMBODIED IMAGINATION by Clayton D. Colmon Jr. Approved: __________________________________________________________ John R. Ernest, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of English Literature Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Pelesko, Ph.D Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Douglas J. Doren, Ph.D. Interim Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate College I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ M. Jean Pfaelzer, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ A.Timothy Spaulding, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ P. Gabrielle Foreman, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Hoda Zaki, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “Good. Better. Best. Never let them rest—until good becomes better, and better becomes best.” These words resonate with me still. Thanks mom and dad. I wish to honor the patient village of family and friends whose hopeful support has sustained me through this work. To my sisters and brother—Quay, Shay, and Ryan—for being fellow blerds who encouraged imaginative adventures and held me accountable to the realities of life outside of the academy. I’m grateful for your restorative presence and love, through it all. To Andrea for finding me in a previous life and sticking by me through this one; you are the best of friends. Heartfelt appreciation to my dissertation committee and to the University of Delaware English Department. I thank Jeannie Pfaelzer for her tenacity of spirit and utopic vision; for supporting a queer Black graduate student through difficult drafts; and for encouraging excellence. To P. Gabrielle Foreman for honoring and excavating our ancestors’ labor. Your mentorship has moved mountains and continues to build worlds for me and countless others. Many thanks to A. Timothy Spaulding, for believing in vampires and for helping me unpack the reformative potential in speculative texts. To Hoda Zaki whose work informs how I understand Octavia Butler’s legacy and feminist utopias. I would also like to recognize the many, many folx whose labor is too often buried in academic spaces. To the Black women who protected me within a sociopolitical system that continues to destroy Black lives and disrupt Black futures; iv to teachers like Mrs. Davis who encouraged shy Black kids to read, write, and speak their dreams; to the anonymous folx who nurtured nascent online communities and modeled generative relationships through technology—from Blackplanet to Twitter; to the wise DJs who created space for spiritual release on crowded dancefloors; and to my students whose brilliance and courage pushed me to radicalize my pedagogy. Thank you all. Lastly, I’d like to offer a special acknowledgement to my partner, Jarrett, for being a treasured confidant and comrade in the struggle to realize a better world. J'apprends à travers nous. v Blessed are the coffeemakers, for they will be called fuelers of dreams. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: AFROFUTURISM, UTOPIA, AND IMAGINATION ........................................................................................ 1 Conceptual Genealogy and Framework .................................................... 1 Organizational Framework and Critical Engagement ............................. 11 2 QUEER AFROFUTURISM: UTOPIA, SEXUALITY, AND DESIRE IN SAMUEL DELANY’S “AYE, AND GOMORRAH” ....................... 16 Introducing Queer Afrofuturism .............................................................. 16 (Re)Presenting Queer Utopia: Marking Place by Claiming Space ......... 23 Queer Sexuality: The Use Value of “Loose Swinging Meat” ................. 28 Queer Desire: Qualifying “The Old Longing” ........................................ 35 3 IGNITING THE RECOGNITION: RACE AND THE UNDEAD CITY IN COLSON WHITEHEAD’S ZONE ONE ................................. 43 Introducing the Zombie Narrative ........................................................... 43 The Paradox of a Middling Black Post-human Body .............................. 50 Post-human Possibility and Anti-exceptionalism .................................... 53 Living Memory in the Urban Post-Apocalypse ....................................... 57 Peddling the Re-mapped Metropolis ....................................................... 59 The Future(s) of Post-Apocalyptic Urban Imagination ........................... 64 Afrofuturist Urban Planning .................................................................... 67 4 A LASTING TRUTH: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER’S AFROFUTURIST PEDAGOGY AND DIGITAL LEARNING PRAXIS ........................... 71 Introducing Afrofuturist Pedagogy .......................................................... 71 Minding the Gap: Placemaking, Digital Citizenship, and Class(room) Participation ............................................................................................. 77 Placemaking and Process ........................................................................ 86 Democracy and Digital Pedagogical Engagement .................................. 91 Space Making and Queer Pedagogical Community ................................ 98 The Utopian Project and Education ....................................................... 105 vii Defining Queer Space and Community in Critical Pedagogical Practice .................................................................................................. 110 Afrofuturism Online: Creating an Imaginative Digital Learning Praxis ..................................................................................................... 115 Adaptive Knowledge Building and Afrofuturist Instructional Design .. 122 An Open Conclusion: Pedagogical Worldbuilding and Imaginative Change ................................................................................................... 127 5 CONCLUSION: AFROFUTURIST AUDIOTOPIA AND CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE-WORK ................................................... 136 On Being Heard ..................................................................................... 136 Cyndi Mayweather and the Afrofuturist Concept Album ..................... 139 The Dissertation as Creative Knowledge-Work .................................... 145 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 155 Appendix A SOUNDSCAPES .................................................................................. 174 viii LIST OF FIGURES 1: A Framework for Emergent Strategies. Chart from adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change and Changing Worlds (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017), 50. Print. ............................................................ 116 ix ABSTRACT Afrofuturism is a radical Black movement that situates race, gender, and sexuality within discussions of technology and creative worldbuilding. This project examines afrofuturist works1 that expand utopia and center Black folx in imaginative visions of change. I turn to works from Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Colson Whitehead, and Janelle Monáe which offer future visions of Black identity and inclusive queer placemaking in technologically mediated, public discourse. While I build on scholarship that grapples with Black futurity, this project is distinguished by its focus on the complexities of queer worldbuilding in heteronormative futurescapes, the role of traumatic memory in speculative urban planning, and the transformative potential of afrofuturist pedagogical practices in digital learning spaces. This project explores Black post-human embodiment and municipal governance in real and imagined urban spaces. It also offers a careful examination of queer teaching and learning that foster critical digital citizenship for Black folx and other marginalized peoples. I turn to the Black Speculative Arts Movement and audiotopia to frame this