Afrofuturism in the A.M.

After a year long internship with Artivism Community Art, Janaya Britton Gives Advice on Black Creativity based on her own life.

Some time early this year I had a conversation on the educational experience from a Black perspective. We spoke on the use of education for class attainment. The experience of the classical education that included exploration of the world through the arts was an experience that contributed to an ability to create and think about the world. The ways the American k-12 public schooling system changed after the “No Child left Behind” Act has lessened children’s access to models for high level intellectual thinking. Today the innovation ecosystem is filled with people who had a classical education, but the K-12 education system is increasingly focused on training, not education. Black education is family based however. Much of the history of education in America has been segregated and alienated African Americans. Thus in our history we have models that show how to teach oneself information. In this episode we focus on the education story from  Janaya Briton, a creative student at Texas Southern University majoring in communications. The question I am asking all of us is, what is your education story? How has it affected your creativity?

This episode Schetauna calls her cousin Essie in Chicago, IL to ask her about the Black Family. During the conversation Essie helps grounds us in what Black family was like in Missippi, speaks about the Great Migration, and how family is tied to faith.  

In 2018 Schetauna had a chance to chat about her work in the arts, her knowledge about Afrofuturism, and her opinion on pop culture. 

June 2021 is Black family month for us! The Black Family has been a hot topic in American rhetoric and policy since enslavement. In this episode we explore what it means to have a Black family through the tradition of letter writing that was started by W.E.B. DuBois in the Souls of Black Folk. 

During April 2021, Schetauna and Tiffany think about what tradition means when it comes to Blackness. How does faith line up with tradition? We wonder if the well defined idea of Blackness is serving us or hurting us in the long run.

Our meditation on Black Joy is aided by some community perspectives. This episode I explore the role of Power, Sex, Money, Drugs, and Avarice in our pursuit to achieve joy with Janya Britton and Miri Teresa. We learn about all of the ways we can understand ourselves in relation to these concepts. As we discuss we talk about literary faves Toni Morrison and end the episode with some musical inspiration feat Solange, India Arie, Lizzo and more!

During March 2021 we focused on what it means to be joyful from a Black perspective. This episode Tiffany and Schetauna are joined by Miles to ruminate on the ways we can create joy in our lives. We start off by playing a game of five things, then we warm up by defining joy, and eventually we come to a couple of meaningful conclusions on how to establish joyful lives. 

February 2021 we discussed what the futures industry is. We took a overview look at how the future has been conceptualized by speaking about the colonial era, the industrial revolution, and the digital age. During this month we hosted the Black Speculative Art Movement 2021 Conference, and we speak to Dominic Clay to understand how education and art influences our future planning.

In this segment we discuss the politics of Blackness and health. Lighthearted and joyful meditation.

The second show in January 2021. We ask what inspires us? We dive deeper into Black health.