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How do black artists embrace sci-fi to expand history?

Ekow Eshun explores the past and future of Afrofuturism.
2nd June 2021
    Ekow Eshun explores ‘a zone of possibility and of new dreaming’ in Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture. Travelling across a galaxy of powerful reimaginings of stories we tell ourselves about the past, Eshun, in a new BBC documentary, brings us in contact with an array of artists and writers. Revealing the magic of being on the margins, he shares how a continuum of artists embrace the position of outsider and refashion it into strength and self-determination.
    Photo courtesy of BBC

    Didi

    'My Grandfather did not let the world harden him. His eyes, which have greyed with his hair, shine like buttons when he laughs.'

    Gentle Euphoria

    A rare chance to rejoice in the collective craft of writing

    Ideas are like rabbits

    ‘Ideas are like rabbits, you get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you will have a dozen’

    Hurvin Anderson

    A meditation on the illusory nature of the reality of Britain’s entangled history

    Kin

    The journey of two childhood friends in the segregated South as their lives drastically diverge

    Afghanistanism

    'Red is the colour of joy and beauty and also of the killing that comes in waves.'

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    Free Will

    Will Harris reads his poem, 'Free Will'. Directed by Matthew Thompson and commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

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    Half Written Love Letter

    Selina Nwulu reads her poem, 'Half Written Love Letter'. Directed by Matthew Thompson and commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

    Illuminating, in-depth conversations between writers.

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    What we leave we carry, The series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK.

    The series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK.

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    Fiction Prescriptions

    Bibliotherapy for the head and the heart

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    Everyone has an elsewhere

    Nine writers explore the elusive emotional truth behind narratives and storytelling.

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