Of Afrofuturism and Social Change

INTERVIEW Rochelle Spencer talks with the author of Gilda Of Afrofuturism and Social Change JEWELLE GOMEZ N A COLD and drizzly day in San Francisco, vised, a novel about black activists from the 1960s, and a new Jewelle Gomez, recipient of a Lambda Award Gilda novel. and fellowships from the National Endow- This interview was conducted in person at Destination Bak- ment for the Arts, the California Arts Coun- ery in San Francisco. cil, and the San Francisco Arts Commission, bubbles with lightness and luminescence. The Rochelle Spencer: With the 25th anniversary of Gilda, where Osame compassion that drives her work infuses her interactions: do you situate your fictional work? Is it Afrofuturism? Some she’s concerned about a baby being protected from the rain; critics and readers think of you as one of the foremothers of this she worries about a young girl who has wandered away from genre. her mother; she notices that a woman drinking her coffee will Jewelle Gomez: When I started doing the Gilda stories, sit on a bench that’s missing a seat cushion—and so she offers African-Americans were skeptical of my doing anything that her one. was speculative fiction. African-American friends and writers Gomez is the author of the award-winning novel Gilda said “black people have too many horrible things to deal with in (Firebrand Books, 1991) and the short fiction collection Don’t the present. Why would you go off speculating when we have Explain (Firebrand Books, 1998); the essay collection 43 Sep- so many things to worry about?” That was weird to me because tembers; the poetry collections The Lipstick Papers (self-pub- I felt that speculative fiction had so much to show us about pos- lished, 1980), Flamingos and Bears (self-published, 1987), and sibilities for social change and equality. I started writing during Oral Tradition: Selected the Women’s Movement, when speculative fiction was huge. Poems Old and New , Joanna Russ [speculative fiction writer and critic] and The (Firebrand Books, 1995); Women of Wonder [a classic sci-fi anthology of women’s writ- the plays Bone and Ash ,a ing] used speculative fiction to talk about social change and to theatrical adaptation of imagine a better world. Gilda, and Waiting for I guess I am a foremother of Afrofuturism. When I first read Giovanni, about James Octavia Butler, I went crazy with joy. There just weren’t many Baldwin’s process of cre- African-Americans writing sci-fi. Her work told me that, yes, I ating Giovanni’s Room ; could write this kind of fiction—speculative fiction. and numerous reviews and essays. As an activist, RS: The Black Arts Movement [BAM] has been lauded for Gomez was a founding pointing out the politics embedded in art—its social justice as- member of GLAAD (the pect, its defiance of mainstream aesthetics—but it has also been Gay & Lesbian Alliance described as sexist, homophobic, and essentialist in its view Against Discrimination). of black culture. What’s your take on this controversy? Gomez’ fiction has JG: I don’t get invited to read at black bookstores, and when won her the admiration of the Indigenous Futurism movement, Gilda first came out, the black community was very suspicious which focuses on the speculative fiction of Native peoples, and of the vampires—and the lesbianism. I think the Afrofuturism she is revered as a leader in the black science fiction movement movement is more open. But there’s also a kind of slightly lib- known as Afrofuturism. In 1997, Gomez participated in one of ertarian moment where they don’t always appear to be looking the first conferences on black speculative fiction, “The African- at what was missing from the Black Arts Movement and how to American Fantastic Imagination: Explorations in Science Fic- attract diverse voices to it. Still, I was invited to Bates College tion, Fantasy and Horror.” She co-edited, with Eric Garber, a in Maine and was there for four days discussing Afrofuturism gay and lesbian science fiction/fantasy anthology titled Swords and the roles of vampires in the future. Also, horror writer Tana- of the Rainbow (2000). narive Due invited me to Spelman College for a conference on As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Gilda with an ex- black speculative fiction. panded anniversary edition from City Lights Publishers, Gomez I was part of the first conference on black speculative fiction continues to create new work, including the forthcoming Tele- along with Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes at Clark Atlanta University. These writers were Rochelle Spencer, author of the novel Ella Jones and Her Magical supportive of each other. I had previously met Octavia Butler at Vagina, has contributed short fiction to a number of publications. one of the black women writers’ conferences in the mid 1980s, 26 The Gay & Lesbian Review / WORLDWIDE.

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