Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture

by Anais Duplan

Black artists of the avant-garde have always defined the future. Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture is the culmination of six years of multidisciplinary research by trans poet and curator Anaïs Duplan about the aesthetic strategies used by experimental artists of color since the 1960s to pursue liberatory possibility. Through a series of lyric essays, interviews with contemporary artists and writers of color, and ekphrastic poetry, Duplan deconstructs how creative people frame their relationships to the word, "liberation." With a focus on creatives who use digital media and language-as-technology—luminaries like Actress, Juliana Huxtable, Lawrence Andrews, Tony Cokes, Sondra Perry, and Nathaniel Mackey—Duplan offers three lenses for thinking about liberation: the personal, the social, and the existential. Arguing that true freedom is impossible without considering all three, the book culminates with a personal essay meditating on the author’s own journey of gender transition while writing the book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Poetry, Race

126 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Write Room · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume of essays is a window into a rich world Of various art forms as gathered and seen through the authors lens. Reading Blackspace; On the Poetics of An Afrofuture (Anaïs Duplan 2020) was a mixed experience for me which resulted in a deep respect for Duplan and what an array of social and philosophical thought he managed to place inside the covers of one small book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I would classify this as a book that is best read at the right time in ones life. And thankfully I read this at the correct time for me.

Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
This book asks so many interesting and magnificently thought provoking questions.
"Does art need a public?" is just one of many I highlighted.

I can definitely see myself rereading this one again in the future.
So fucking glad I wanted free shipping on my Philadelphia Printworks order that I threw this book into my cart on an impulse! Thank you past me!

[John West]

In this collection of essays, Duplan looks at how black avant-garde artists use aesthetics as a praxis for attaining liberation. “ Art magnifies the sensual qualities found in my daily experiences” (2)

My hits:

“The truth is freedom is the most mundane thing imaginable but it’s also hard to locate and it’s rarely pure...Being unfree is different than bondage. Bondage is someone else owning your body. Being unfree is what happens after emancipation: one becomes an emancipated citizen in the society that used to enslave her and still is built to do so- without a literal title on one’s body, but still with the power to destroy that body, threaten it, circumscribe it, categorize it, and imprison it. (67)

"Afrofuturism is permission to speak. It’s permission to dream, to imagine that you and people who look like you will continue to exist in the future. it’s to plan, thrive, grow, and change as a person with the assuredness of your continued existence in mind. To some that may not sound like much, but to me it sounds like everything.” (84).

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Afrofuturism is permission to speak. It’s permission to dream, to imagine that you and the people who look like you will continue to exist in the future. It’s to plan, thrive, grow, and change as a person with the assuredness of your continued existence in mind. Just some that may not sound like much. To me, it sounds like everything.” Pg. 84

“I’m thinking about something you said last night, and it’s made my work much better, but it’ll be sometime before I say this to you. I thank you in this indirect manner. I thank you with my eyes and my manner.” Pg. 99

[Grant Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of essays on the pursuit of freedom through artistic practice, many of them deeply reflective interviews with Black artists of the avant-garde. What does freedom mean? What aesthetic strategies can be employed in the pursuit of freedom? I particularly appreciated the discussion of the constraining role of genre categories in the history of Black music, the exploration of the mundane in relation to the Black body, and the author's philosophical reflection on gender norms and his transition. Often profound, sometimes a little hard to follow.

[Taylor Napolsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous essays about Black futures and exploration through Black art. Intellectual, quirky, and deeply curious, Duplan writes with a combo of humility and consideration that comes out to be nonstop thought provoking. I learned a ton from this, as the ideas presented just flow and flow.

[stephanie roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I come here to accomplish? I think I did. At the same time, I came to rid myself of accomplishment, which itself would be an accomplishment.

Thank you. Thank you for listening. I have accomplished nothing. Thank you.

[taylor mcbride]

go, an! <3

[Savannah Dryden · Rating 5 out of 5]

an incredibly enriching and enlightening read. very grateful to have had the privilege to experience anais's writing :)

[Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essay “making use of the mundane” will stay with me forever I think

[chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Davita · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

a guiding light