President of the Afrofuturism Network to speak at Pitt-Greensburg

William Jones photoWilliam Jones, founder and president of the Afrofuturism Network, will discuss Afrofuturism when he visits the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg on Wednesday, February 20. The event will be held in Village Hall 118 AT 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Specifically, Jones will discuss the representation of black people in various mediums—comic books and sci-fi/supernatural films—and their history. He also will tackle the topic of blackface and correlations between real history and the representations of black people in comics at various points in time.

A historian, comic book geek, writer, and educator, Jones is a sought-after public speaker on the subjects of the history of black people in America, the image of black people in various forms of media, pop culture, and hip-hop music, to name just a few. He is the author of the book, “The Ex-Con, Voodoo Priest, Goddess, and the African King: A Social, Cultural, and Political Analysis of Four Black Comic Book Heroes (2016).

“Afrofuturism is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a black lens,” explains a Huffington Post article. The term was coined by Mark Dery in 1994. The article continues, “What makes Afrofuturism significantly different from standard science fiction is that it’s steeped in ancient African traditions and black identity. A narrative that simply features a black character in a futuristic world is not enough. To be Afrofuturism, it must be rooted in and unapologetically celebrate the uniqueness and innovation of black culture.” (Huffington Post, Feb. 2018)

Playing a part in the discussion at Pitt-Greensburg will be the popular 2018 movie, “Black Panther,” which is nominated for eight Academy Awards. Pitt-Greensburg students will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned during the discussion when the movie is screened on campus the following night for them.

“We want to raise awareness of what Afrofuturism is and how it is presented in film and comics,” said Al Thiel, director of the Student Center and Student Involvement at Pitt-Greensburg. “One of the campus’s ongoing goals is to provide programming that presents a viewpoint of diversity across a variety of topics and to provide guided practice opportunities for students to develop their skills for respectful engagement.”

This event is co-sponsored several campus groups, the Nerdfighters, History Club, the Diversity Student Coalition, and the President’s Committee on Diversity, as part of Pitt-Greensburg observance of Black History Month.

Publication Date

Thursday, January 1, 1970 - 00:00