An Afrofuturistic Vehicle for Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Afrofuturism is a storytelling genre that appears in multiple media types, including books, films, television, comics, music, and art. Drawing from genres such as science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, and other speculative genres, Afrofuturism re-envisions the past, present, and future in order to show what the Black community does and can look like in imaginative and yet intensely real ways. Afrofuturism challenges its audiences’ ideas about race, gender, science, and technology, as well as those audiences’ assumptions about the past and expectations about the future. The fluid nature of Afrofuturism makes it difficult to define, but this fluidity allows for compositional flexibility and playfulness. Afrofuturism explore issues that also defy borders and definition, such as disability, sexuality, and gender. After surveying Afrofuturist works across media types, I found that Afrofuturism provides a rich resource for college literacy instruction, especially the teaching of composition and rhetoric. I argue that professors can incorporate Afrofuturism in their classrooms to create learning spaces in which all their students can practice thinking and writing more critically and fluidly, but also highlight how Black people have been and are creators of knowledge and stewards of literacy. Additionally, I provide pedagogical examples of how to incorporate Afrofuturism into the classroom beyond inclusion in the reading list.