{"677818":{"#nid":"677818","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Spacefunk! Building Futures in Full Color at Georgia Tech, Across Atlanta, and Around the World","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELisa Yaszek, Regents\u2019 Professor of Science Fiction Studies, shares her insights on Georgia Tech\u2019s recent event, Spacefunk! A Science Fiction Reading Meet \u2018N\u2019 Greet.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the most rewarding parts of my work as \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/expert\/lisa-yaszek-science-fiction-expert\u0022\u003ERegents\u2019 Professor of Science Fiction Studies\u003C\/a\u003E at Georgia Tech is connecting the scientists, engineers, and policy makers who are literally building the world of tomorrow with science fiction artists who are imagining our many possible futures today. We take these connections seriously at Tech; indeed, as a member of the steering committee for Georgia Tech\u2019s new \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/space.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESpace Research Institute\u003C\/a\u003E (SRI) I\u2019m particularly pleased that we\u2019ve included the study of \u201cmaking space\u201d in art and culture as one of our Institute\u2019s founding principles.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo that end, on Thursday, September 17, we gathered science fiction fans, Black art aficionados, and space enthusiasts in the Georgia Tech Library\u2019s Crosland Tower Stairs event space for \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/events\/spacefunk-science-fiction-reading-meetngreet-authors\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk! A Science Fiction Reading Meet \u2018N\u2019 Greet\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, which I hosted with support from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Library\u003C\/a\u003E (be sure to check out our world-class \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/archives\/archives-collections\u0022\u003Escience fiction collection\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/scifi-lounge\u0022\u003Ereading lounge\u003C\/a\u003E!). The event began with an introduction by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mvmediaatl.com\/product-page\/spacefunk\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E editor and publisher \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.miltonjdavis.com\/\u0022\u003EMilton J. Davis\u003C\/a\u003E, who explained why outer space has long been one of the premiere places for Black technoscientific genius and artistic creativity. Afterward, attendees broke into small groups with featured authors and poets \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/balogun_ojetade\/?hl=en\u0022\u003EBalogun Ojetade\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bryantohara_poet\/?hl=en\u0022\u003EBryant O\u2019Hara\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.jessicacage.com\/\u0022\u003EJessica Cage\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/shewhowritesmonsters.com\/\u0022\u003EKyoko M\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/glennparris.com\/\u0022\u003EGlenn Parris\u003C\/a\u003E, who read from their \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E contributions and then talked with their group members about their processes for understanding and representing outer space in art.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E event was immediately designed to celebrate Georgia Tech\u2019s new SRI, it was also part of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/features\/science-fiction-50th-anniversary-georgia-tech\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s longstanding commitment to science fiction education\u003C\/a\u003E. My predecessor, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sf-encyclopedia.com\/entry\/foote_bud\u0022\u003EIrving \u201cBud\u201d Foote\u003C\/a\u003E, offered one of the first college-level science fiction classes for credit in 1971 and then began the tradition of bringing science fiction authors including Fred Pohl, Ursula K. le Guin, and Kim Stanley Robinson to campus soon after. Since the 2000s, I\u2019ve sought to expand that commitment by partnering with Atlanta-based speculative writers, artists, and fans to highlight the excitement of our city as a vibrant space for science fiction across media. Some of my first and most successful partnerships were with \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/blackscifi\/\u0022\u003EDavis and other members of the local Black science fiction community\u003C\/a\u003E, and over the past decade and a half we have successfully co-hosted author readings, daylong symposia, and even a con or two at Georgia Tech. Last spring I had the pleasure of introducing Davis to Georgia Tech\u2019s space community during our \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/yuris-day-symposium\u0022\u003EYuri\u2019s Day Symposium\u003C\/a\u003E, and so it seemed natural to all of us to keep the party going this year with events that allowed even more members of our two communities to interact with one another. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the things I found most rewarding about the \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E event was its powerful reminder that the stars have always been all of ours. Most histories of space flight in modern science fiction begin with speculative pioneers Edgar Allen Poe and Jules Verne before moving on to space opera luminaries such as E.E. \u201cDoc\u201d Smith and hard science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. However, the fifty-plus Black-authored works collected in \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E, coupled with Davis\u2019s introductory essay on the long history of Black contributions to the U.S. space program, invite us to tell a different story about the history of space flight in science fiction. Told through the lens of Black speculation, we should instead begin that history with the enslaved Black colonial poet Phillis Wheatley Peters, whose 1773 poem \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/52632\/on-imagination\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EOn Imagination\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E gave us our first images of genius-level Black star children escaping the gravitational pull of Earthly racism on the Mothership of Imagination\u2014images that quite literally came to life in the late 1970s with \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.si.edu\/object\/mothership%3Anmaahc_2011.83.1.1-.9\u0022\u003EParliament-Funkadelic\u2019s life-sized \u201cMothership\u201d stage prop\u003C\/a\u003E, which singer George Clinton always insisted was \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.searchablemuseum.com\/the-mothership\u0022\u003Ethe embodiment of Black liberation\u003C\/a\u003E! \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBlack authors continued to reach for the stars in the African American newspapers that flourished throughout the first half of the twentieth century, where journalists including George S. Schuyler and Mary E. Stratford used \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/docview\/201839626\/C5797C026E3A46B2PQ\/39?sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers\u0022\u003Espace stories about strange encounters between alien races\u003C\/a\u003E as funhouse mirrors to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican1\/docview\/531975818\/F203F3FB8A674F1FPQ\/2?sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers\u0022\u003Ethe strange encounters between human races on Earth and especially in the U.S\u003C\/a\u003E. These newspapers were also \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.upress.umn.edu\/9781517911577\/black-pulp\/\u0022\u003Ethe birthplace of commercially oriented Black genre fiction\u003C\/a\u003E, giving readers the first-ever Black-authored space opera: John P. Moore\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican1\/docview\/530852366\/44EC826FBE2C4192PQ\/4?sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAmazing Stories: One Hundred Years Hence\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (1930), which follows the adventures of three Black scientists\u2014and one Black science fiction author!\u2014who travel to an all-Black, high tech Mars.\u0026nbsp; Perhaps not surprisingly, when Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler integrated the White science fiction community in the 1960s and 70s, some of the first major works they gave readers\u2014\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.loa.org\/news-and-views\/1592-samuel-r-delany-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-super-nova\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENova\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.octaviabutler.com\/xenogenesis-series\u0022\u003EXenogenesis trilogy\u003C\/a\u003E\u2014were in the form of space stories organized around race relations. Today, of course, we enjoy a variety of critically celebrated Black space operas including Nnedi Okorafor\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/nnedi.com\/books\/the-binti-series\/\u0022\u003EBinti\u003C\/a\u003E novellas, Marcus Broaddus\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mauricebroaddus.com\/novels\/\u0022\u003ESweep of Stars\u003C\/a\u003E series, and, of course, new short works such as those collected in the \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E Anthology. Together, these space stories turn the implicitly and sometimes explicitly racist and colonialist impulses of the classic, White-authored space opera on its head while dramatizing the intellectual and technoscientific abilities of Black peoples across space and time.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother exciting aspect of the Georgia Tech \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E event was that it gave members of the Georgia Tech community the opportunity to meet Black speculative fiction creators specifically associated with Atlantafuturism. As artist (and Georgia Tech alum!) \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.artsatl.org\/creative-in-residence-guest-editor-floyd-hall-and-the-case-for-atlantafuturism\/\u0022\u003EFloyd Hall explains\u003C\/a\u003E, audiences across the world increasingly associate our city with the future because it is the backdrop for so many MCU films, including the \u003Cem\u003EBlack Panther\u003C\/em\u003E series\u2014indeed, for many people, Atlanta seems to benothing short of a real-life Wakanda. The danger, of course, is that as this Hollywood-produced vision of Atlanta takes root in the global cultural imaginary, we run the risk of erasing our city\u2019s very real history of forging new and better futures not through the accidental discovery of some marvelous new element, but through the long, hard, and often dangerous work of civil rights activism. As Floyd puts it: Atlanta-as-Wakanda \u201cboth sells short the generations of Black struggle in Atlanta while ignoring the vulnerable legacy of that struggle in the present, as income inequality, economic immobility and violence upon the Black body pose consistent and dire threats to the city\u2019s Black culture.\u201d As founding members of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/1889275918021773\/about\u0022\u003EAtlantafuturism artists\u2019 collective\u003C\/a\u003E, Milton Davis and many of the other authors who participated in the Georgia Tech \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E event introduced Georgia Tech scientists and students to the principles of Atlantafuturism through space stories that dramatize both Black technoscientific genius and the history of communal Black social activism. As such, the \u003Cem\u003ESpacefunk!\u003C\/em\u003E artists do the important work of reminding us that we are not alone, and that the wicked problems we face in the opening decades of the twenty-first century are quite like those that people across the world have grappled with for hundreds of years now. In doing so, Atlantafuturists, especially those who are also proud Spacefunkateers, give us templates for action in the present that can build truly more inclusive futures for us all. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELisa Yaszek, Regents\u2019 Professor of Science Fiction Studies, shares her insights on Georgia Tech\u2019s recent event, Spacefunk! A Science Fiction Reading Meet \u2018N\u2019 Greet.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Lisa Yaszek, Regents\u2019 Professor of Science Fiction Studies, shares her insights on Georgia Tech\u2019s recent event, Spacefunk! A Science Fiction Reading Meet \u2018N\u2019 Greet."}],"uid":"34760","created_gmt":"2024-10-22 17:38:41","changed_gmt":"2024-10-28 16:59:07","author":"Laurie Haigh","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675438":{"id":"675438","type":"image","title":"Spacefunkateers","body":null,"created":"1729885876","gmt_created":"2024-10-25 19:51:16","changed":"1729885970","gmt_changed":"2024-10-25 19:52:50","alt":"From left to right: Glenn Parris, Balogun Ojetade, Milton J. Davis, Bryant O\u0027Hara, Kyoko M., and Jessica Cage","file":{"fid":"259061","name":"Spacefunkateers photo by Lisa Yaszek-cropped.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/25\/Spacefunkateers%20photo%20by%20Lisa%20Yaszek-cropped.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/25\/Spacefunkateers%20photo%20by%20Lisa%20Yaszek-cropped.png","mime":"image\/png","size":2505482,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/10\/25\/Spacefunkateers%20photo%20by%20Lisa%20Yaszek-cropped.png?itok=yb6o2vtq"}}},"media_ids":["675438"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/lisa-yaszek\u0022\u003ELisa Yaszek\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ERegents\u2019 Professor of Science Fiction Studies\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.yaszek@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}