An interactive conversation with and about vanguard black women working in science fiction media, led by the Center for Afrofuturist Studies artist-in-residence, filmmaker Celia C. Peters.
at the Iowa City Public Library Meeting Room A || Free and open to the public
PANELISTS:
Celia C. Peters is a filmmaker and artist of the new millennium exploring the horizons of character-driven work featuring compelling stories and authentically diverse characters. She explores narratives rooted in the emotional complexity of the human experience. She has curated and produced panels, screenings, and readings of Afrofuturism and science fiction by Black creators at the California African American Museum, New York Comic Con, the 2017 Afropunk Festival, Tribeca Film Center, and the National Black Theater of Harlem. Her graphic art, photography and video work have shown at galleries in New York, London, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland and Columbus. Peters’ prize-winning film work has been featured in the Talent Lab at the 2018 Reykjavik International Film Festival, CultivEight, a feature film development incubator sponsored by the NEA Art Works Program, the FAME Film/Arts Festival in London, and BET’s The Best Shorts series. She has also been awarded residencies at the Wexner Center for the Arts and Hawthornden International Retreat. artisticfreedomltd.com
Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, poet and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, natural science and conjure, her roots in Memphis, and in the genius culture created in the Mississippi Delta. Sheree’s stories and poetry explore ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. She is the author of Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Aqueduct Press), honored with a Publishers Weekly Starred Review and longlisted for the 2016 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and of Shotgun Lullabies (2011), described as “a revelatory work like Jean Toomer’s Cane.” Thomas edited the two Dark Matter black speculative fiction volumes that first introduced W. E. B. Du Bois’s work as science fiction, winning two World Fantasy Awards. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and literary journals, and she is the Associate Editor of Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora (Illinois State University, Normal) and the co-editor of Trouble the Waters: Tales of the Deep Blue (forthcoming 2019 from Rosarium). Honored with fellowships from Breadloaf Environmental, the Millay Colony of Arts, Smith College, the New York Foundation of the Arts, VCCA, Cave Canem Foundation, and the Tennessee Arts Commission among others, Thomas’s multigenre writing explores the hidden wonders in the invisible. www.aqueductpress.com/authors/ShereeThomas.php
Ingrid LaFleur is an artist, curator, activist, and Afrofuturist. Her mission is to ensure equal distribution of the future, exploring the frontiers of social justice through new technologies, economies, and modes of government. As a recent Detroit Mayoral candidate and founder and director of AFROTOPIA, LaFleur implements Afrofuturist strategies to empower Black bodies and oppressed communities through frameworks such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and universal basic income. Ingrid LaFleur is currently the co-founder and Chief Community Officer of EOS Detroit, Director of Detroit Bank Job, and Curator of the upcoming Afrofuturist exhibition, Manifest Destiny. As a thought leader, social justice technologist, public speaker, teacher and cultural advisor she has led conversations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, TEDxDetroit, Ideas City, New Museum (New York), AfroTech Conference, Harvard University and Oxford University, among others. LaFleur serves on the board of JustSpace Alliance, Women of Color in Blockchain, and the First Independence Bank Millennial Advisory Board. LaFleur is based in Detroit, Michigan. ingridlafleur.com
The program is presented with the support of:
Legacies for Iowa: A University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art Collections-Sharing Project, Supported by the Matthew Bucksbaum Family
Lauren Haldeman
Java House
