What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Black Fantastic /anglais
Neither Afrofuturism nor Magic Realism, yet carving its own realm, 'In the Black Fantastic' animates a cultural phenomenon that summons surreal visions from the Black experience and beyond, exploring how speculative fictions in Black art and culture are audaciously reshaping views on race, gender, identity, and the body in the 21st century.
Hardcover
Published June 3, 2022
7 people are currently reading
1450 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 14, 2023
I usually don’t care for anything that approximates “modern art,” but this was really cool. I saw faces and things I recognized, “hey, that’s Kamasi Washington!” “R. I. P. Chadwick Boseman!” “Oh yeah, I can’t forget that scene from ’Get Out’!” “Lovecraft Country!” So that made me feel cool too.
I think why this appealed when so much new art seems masturbatory and boring to me,(e.g. paintings by people with trust funds that look like something a kindergartener could make): most of this art felt like it had some sort of message to say, even if I didn’t always know what it was, you could look at it and know. And it felt really unique... and new. Like if you were at a space station in the future, this is what they’d have in their museum. The fantastical elements adds cohesion and personal appeal (BIPOC sci-fi is exploding and adding a lot of interesting directions and dialogues) and this sense of a deeper story and prompts the imagination.
I like the idea of using a visual art piece as a prompt for a creative writing class, and I think anything from here would make some interesting inspiration.
I wish I was rich and could afford some fine art because these works are important and would be a great investment… and I would love to be able to look at them all the time.
I think why this appealed when so much new art seems masturbatory and boring to me,(e.g. paintings by people with trust funds that look like something a kindergartener could make): most of this art felt like it had some sort of message to say, even if I didn’t always know what it was, you could look at it and know. And it felt really unique... and new. Like if you were at a space station in the future, this is what they’d have in their museum. The fantastical elements adds cohesion and personal appeal (BIPOC sci-fi is exploding and adding a lot of interesting directions and dialogues) and this sense of a deeper story and prompts the imagination.
I like the idea of using a visual art piece as a prompt for a creative writing class, and I think anything from here would make some interesting inspiration.
I wish I was rich and could afford some fine art because these works are important and would be a great investment… and I would love to be able to look at them all the time.
February 22, 2023
lots of cool art and SO many cool album covers! afrofuturism and the exploration of the black fantastic… just cool to read about art! i especially liked the chapter about conjure feminism and whatever accent font the book used is amazing. also just learned that sun ra performed at haverford college which is pretty cool
November 1, 2022
Blackness is at the centre of a sometimes fierce debate in the global diasporic community. This new book by Ekow Eshun reshapes the debate in the right direction.
February 15, 2023
Powerful. Motivational. Heartbreaking. Energizing.
Do not presume to call yourself an artist, or even a student of the arts, without absorbing In the Black Fantastic.
Do not presume to call yourself an artist, or even a student of the arts, without absorbing In the Black Fantastic.
Read
August 30, 2022Many thanks to MIT Press for the review copy.
Ekow Eshun's In the Black Fantastic shares a collection of artworks that utilize mythology and speculative fiction to engage questions of race and identity. Related to, though distinct from, Afrofuturism, this framework questions binary assumptions of fact and fiction. The artists tackle the catastrophic trauma caused by the fictional advent of race on the African diaspora with new fictions of their own, fictions that offer opportunities for connection, healing, and inspiration.
The three main essays are by Ekow Eshun ("The Art of the Black Fantastic"), Kameelah L. Martin ("Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics, Conjure Feminism, and the Arts"), and Michelle D. Commander ("In Populated Air: Flying Africans, Technology & the Future.") These essays cover a wide range of media, including music, literature, film, photography, architecture, and art. They're all excellently written, Martin's essay in particular was fascinating. In between the essays are reproductions of the artworks from the exhibition, some explained, some simply labeled with artist, title, and date.
What is missing from all of these essays are confirmations of the Black Fantastic viewpoint from any of the artists represented in the book. These artists are entirely divorced from their individual backgrounds, artistic lineages and movements. I suspect that since they from very different backgrounds and periods in the 20th and 21st century, they may have differing opinions about how well the label "Black Fantastic" suits their visions. I also am left wondering how some artworks, which seem to me to be very reality-grounded and un-fantastic, are supposed to fit into this vision of the Fantastic. Since the essays only sporadically mention the artworks in the book, and many go unexplained either in the essays or in the captions for the images, it feels as if there is something missing from the overall experience.
These are minor quibbles; the book is interesting, the writing is good, and the art is incredible. If you have a chance to see the show before it comes down in September 2022, or if you have a chance to read this book, do it.
Ekow Eshun's In the Black Fantastic shares a collection of artworks that utilize mythology and speculative fiction to engage questions of race and identity. Related to, though distinct from, Afrofuturism, this framework questions binary assumptions of fact and fiction. The artists tackle the catastrophic trauma caused by the fictional advent of race on the African diaspora with new fictions of their own, fictions that offer opportunities for connection, healing, and inspiration.
The three main essays are by Ekow Eshun ("The Art of the Black Fantastic"), Kameelah L. Martin ("Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics, Conjure Feminism, and the Arts"), and Michelle D. Commander ("In Populated Air: Flying Africans, Technology & the Future.") These essays cover a wide range of media, including music, literature, film, photography, architecture, and art. They're all excellently written, Martin's essay in particular was fascinating. In between the essays are reproductions of the artworks from the exhibition, some explained, some simply labeled with artist, title, and date.
What is missing from all of these essays are confirmations of the Black Fantastic viewpoint from any of the artists represented in the book. These artists are entirely divorced from their individual backgrounds, artistic lineages and movements. I suspect that since they from very different backgrounds and periods in the 20th and 21st century, they may have differing opinions about how well the label "Black Fantastic" suits their visions. I also am left wondering how some artworks, which seem to me to be very reality-grounded and un-fantastic, are supposed to fit into this vision of the Fantastic. Since the essays only sporadically mention the artworks in the book, and many go unexplained either in the essays or in the captions for the images, it feels as if there is something missing from the overall experience.
These are minor quibbles; the book is interesting, the writing is good, and the art is incredible. If you have a chance to see the show before it comes down in September 2022, or if you have a chance to read this book, do it.
August 26, 2022
I received a copy of this e-book as a ARC, so not all of the pictures were legible on my screen. That said, the text around the art was well- researched and imaginative. I plan on suggesting it as part of my exploration on Black Speculative Fiction.
July 25, 2022
A stunning book that explores in pictures and text the growth and flowering of the Black Fantastic movement in art. This is a richly inclusive book which includes essays on literature, film and music as well as art works. There are a wealth of glorious photographs to back up the text and the whole thing is beautifully designed and produced.
October 30, 2022
Thank you to MIT Press and to NetGalley for access to this eARC.
The Black Fantastic is a parallel universe, the entrance to which is mediated by visionary creatives: fiction writers, painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers, artists, musicians, dancers, and even politicians. It’s an umbrella term that does not find the distinctions between, say, Afrofuturism, Afrojujuism, and Africanfuturism, at all problematic, or even challenging. It’s the Black Imaginary, existing quite apart from whiteness, never defined or limited by it. It’s African mythology with its arms around Africa, encompassing its Diaspora, and imagining their future.
In The Black Fantastic was published to expand on the exhibition by the same name which ran at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK, from June to September 2022. Ekow Eshun was the curator of this, the UK’s first major show featuring art by the following Black creators: Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Rashad Newsome, Chris Ofili, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Lina Iris Viktor, and Kara Walker. Linkages, an important Black value, are an important part of the work: across time, space, and artistic genre.
In the book, through essays and using pictures, the theme of the Black Fantastic is shown across Africa and the Diaspora; from music (Beyonce, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane) to writing (Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor); on album covers (GZA, Osibisa, Herbie Hancock), and in paintings (Bob Thompson, Jeff Donaldson, Alma Woodsey Thomas); in the story of the Afronauts, from Nkoloso’s vision, to its descendant works (Christine de Middel’s book, sculpture by Gerald Machona, Yinka Onibare).
It’s impossible for me to write about this volume without using superlatives. It’s a journey, a revelation, a vision, and still, also, an everyday reference book for a creative language. It’s a way into a way of seeing the world and the creative output of Black people in new ways, as part of a whole. It’s an entire way of reimagining the future (“THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE” — Alisha Wormsley).
Read/Don’t read: Absolutely READ. Buy a copy to drool over, and to show off, or start conversations.
Also read: Black Futures by Kimberly Drew, Jenna Wortham.
The Black Fantastic is a parallel universe, the entrance to which is mediated by visionary creatives: fiction writers, painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers, artists, musicians, dancers, and even politicians. It’s an umbrella term that does not find the distinctions between, say, Afrofuturism, Afrojujuism, and Africanfuturism, at all problematic, or even challenging. It’s the Black Imaginary, existing quite apart from whiteness, never defined or limited by it. It’s African mythology with its arms around Africa, encompassing its Diaspora, and imagining their future.
In The Black Fantastic was published to expand on the exhibition by the same name which ran at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK, from June to September 2022. Ekow Eshun was the curator of this, the UK’s first major show featuring art by the following Black creators: Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Rashad Newsome, Chris Ofili, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Lina Iris Viktor, and Kara Walker. Linkages, an important Black value, are an important part of the work: across time, space, and artistic genre.
In the book, through essays and using pictures, the theme of the Black Fantastic is shown across Africa and the Diaspora; from music (Beyonce, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane) to writing (Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor); on album covers (GZA, Osibisa, Herbie Hancock), and in paintings (Bob Thompson, Jeff Donaldson, Alma Woodsey Thomas); in the story of the Afronauts, from Nkoloso’s vision, to its descendant works (Christine de Middel’s book, sculpture by Gerald Machona, Yinka Onibare).
It’s impossible for me to write about this volume without using superlatives. It’s a journey, a revelation, a vision, and still, also, an everyday reference book for a creative language. It’s a way into a way of seeing the world and the creative output of Black people in new ways, as part of a whole. It’s an entire way of reimagining the future (“THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE” — Alisha Wormsley).
Read/Don’t read: Absolutely READ. Buy a copy to drool over, and to show off, or start conversations.
Also read: Black Futures by Kimberly Drew, Jenna Wortham.
June 11, 2023
This has to be the best book I've read so far this year! It's beautiful and thought provoking and has such an unusually fun design that helps replicate that immersive gallery-like experience.
Content Warnings:
- antiblack racism
- slavery
- suicide
- rape mention
- cissexism
In the Black Fantastic was an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London from June 29 to September 18, 2022 that made "use of fantastical genres and motifs to address racism and social injustice, and also (…) invoke[d] alternative social scenarios." This book was published on the gallery's opening and helped to expand on the themes of the pieces as well as the Black fantastic itself, which the authors credit Toni Morrison with—if not necessarily "creating", then—helping to pave the way for its birth.
The Black fantastic encompasses works of speculative fiction of any medium that takes inspiration from myth, folklore, and history to create "new visions of African diasporic culture and identity (…) that subvert the Western dichotomy between the real and the unreal, natural and supernatural, scientific and unscientific."
The original gallery showed works by eleven artists, but the book expands on that and provides almost countless examples from just as many artists. They're all printed on glossy, heavyweight pages that contrast with small inserts of black paper essays about half the size of the regular pages. The whole experience is very immersive, extremely enlightening and educational, and it's a book that really serves, at least to me, as a steppingstone to discover, read, and learn more about this genre and these amazing creators working in a wide variety of mediums.
Content Warnings:
- antiblack racism
- slavery
- suicide
- rape mention
- cissexism
In the Black Fantastic was an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London from June 29 to September 18, 2022 that made "use of fantastical genres and motifs to address racism and social injustice, and also (…) invoke[d] alternative social scenarios." This book was published on the gallery's opening and helped to expand on the themes of the pieces as well as the Black fantastic itself, which the authors credit Toni Morrison with—if not necessarily "creating", then—helping to pave the way for its birth.
The Black fantastic encompasses works of speculative fiction of any medium that takes inspiration from myth, folklore, and history to create "new visions of African diasporic culture and identity (…) that subvert the Western dichotomy between the real and the unreal, natural and supernatural, scientific and unscientific."
The original gallery showed works by eleven artists, but the book expands on that and provides almost countless examples from just as many artists. They're all printed on glossy, heavyweight pages that contrast with small inserts of black paper essays about half the size of the regular pages. The whole experience is very immersive, extremely enlightening and educational, and it's a book that really serves, at least to me, as a steppingstone to discover, read, and learn more about this genre and these amazing creators working in a wide variety of mediums.
Read
April 15, 2024Great art book. An intro to Afrofuturism. Not only “art”, it also has a mix of music (many in the 70s) and movies even tv show. I didn’t read the texts.
I “met?” Rotimi Fani-Kayode through this book. I really like the “combined motifs of Yoruba culture and European iconography”, wish I could see more.
[I think Nope ought to be mentioned, even though (in my understanding) Afrofuturism is very visual-heavy and Nope does not have a distinctive aesthetic. Nope is genre-bending, original, the design’s stunning, it respects the audience with a ton of metaphors, and up to interpretation like all great works of fiction are. Plus, how often do we see lesbian (or bi/pan femme) and autistic characters existing in their own right?]
I “met?” Rotimi Fani-Kayode through this book. I really like the “combined motifs of Yoruba culture and European iconography”, wish I could see more.
[I think Nope ought to be mentioned, even though (in my understanding) Afrofuturism is very visual-heavy and Nope does not have a distinctive aesthetic. Nope is genre-bending, original, the design’s stunning, it respects the audience with a ton of metaphors, and up to interpretation like all great works of fiction are. Plus, how often do we see lesbian (or bi/pan femme) and autistic characters existing in their own right?]
February 23, 2023
This is a fascinating photo & essay book looking at Afrofuturist & Black Fantastic visual art. The essays are rather academic, but provide really interesting insight into the movement, and the images cover a wide range of media from photography and paintings to book/album covers and architecture. Definitely worth picking up if you're interested in art!
Content Warnings:
colonialism, slavery, racism
Content Warnings:
colonialism, slavery, racism
January 2, 2024
I won this book on Goodreads.
A beautiful compilation of Black art in many realms of media with text to support the understanding and influences - artistically, politically, socially, professionally.
A visual treat!
A beautiful compilation of Black art in many realms of media with text to support the understanding and influences - artistically, politically, socially, professionally.
A visual treat!
March 2, 2023
Stunning collection of Black speculative art across the African diaspora. I didn’t really know about this art movement before but it was fascinating to read and look through!
August 7, 2023
Interesting collection of Black artwork.
February 22, 2025
Super informative, and the artwork is eye opening, stunning. Sometimes the text read like a textbook, lots of “and” adjective strings.
April 4, 2025
Incredible imagining black art, celebrating black art and examining black art.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews