Carnegie Hall: Afrofuturism Festival
In Fall 2021, ISE-DA was invited by Carnegie Hall and its curatorial council - to be a cultural partner for their first-ever city-wide festival on Afrofuturism. The curatorial council was 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. Along with 75 other cultural partners, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, we developed programming for audiences across New York, with our specific program focused on Afrofuturism in Black Latinx communities.
About Carnegie Hall’s Afrofuturism Festival
Carnegie Hall presented its citywide Afrofuturism festival in February and March 2022. Across a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall and more than 75 partner events presented by leading cultural organizations, this historic festival explored the ever-expansive aesthetic and practice of Afrofuturism, in which music—including jazz, funk, R&B, Afrobeat, hip-hop, and electronic—intersects with a boundless world of visual arts, science fiction, technology, and more.
In education and social impact programs created by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI), young musicians, teachers, and creators from New York City and across the US explored the infinite possibilities of Afrofuturism throughout the Hall’s 2021–2022 season as part of the Hall’s citywide festival.
Afrofuturismo: Las Caras Lindas de mi Gente Negra
February 18 at 2:00 p.m., Centro Cívico Cultural Dominicano
619 West 145th Street, New York, NY
Presented by Centro Cívico Cultural Dominicano, ISE-DA, and the Black Speculative Arts Movement, this Afrofuturism Festival exhibition and symposium identify 21st-century contemporary expressions of Afrofuturismo and Afro-Latinx futurity that are emerging in the areas of metaphysics, visual studies, performance, art, science, and technology.
Documentary highlighting ISE-DA’s work in the festival
Afrofantastic: The Transformative World of Afrofuturism
Special | 26m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
Championed by artists, scholars, and activists around the world, Afrofuturism offers a tool kit for a better tomorrow. This documentary explores the definition and activism linked to Afrofuturism and the ways this movement is informing dynamic discussion about social practice, politics, and the arts in the United States and around the world.