MAY 2021

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This graduate thesis is a multi-generational look at moments of Mundane Afrofuturism (as theorized by Martine Syms) within the lives of Black Muslims in the U.S., emphasizing the concepts of counter-memory and counter-culture as key cultural and political approaches toward subversion and innovation. Consisting of three artworks (I wish I was unhappy; “Singing Praises To God” II; #AllRappersGoToHeaven) the exhibition space is intended to act as an unveiling of information, recognizing Black folks’ historical and ongoing relationship to accessing knowledge.

Read full written thesis here.

Watch the oral defense of my thesis here with committee members Tim Nohe (Chair), Kathy O’Dell, and Sarah Sharp, with questioners Lisa Moren, James Smalls, Kevin Strait, and Su’ad Abdul Khabeer.

Table of Contents

Introduction

· Defining Afrofuturism
· Fantastical vs Mundane: Afrofuturism and the Black Radical Tradition
· Divine Justice vs Social Justice: Liberation Theory in Islam and Afrofuturism

On Counter-Memory 

· Defining Counter-Memory and Related Afrofuturist Theory
· Discovering Yarrow Mamout
· "Singing Praises to God" II (2021)
· Dhikr as Active Counter-Memory
· il/literacy

On Mundane Afrofuturism

· Martine Syms’ The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto (2013)
· Envisioning Black Livelihoods: Filling a Void with Things Imagined (2019)
· W.E.B. Du Bois’ the Veil
· I wish I was unhappy (2020)
· Post Woke: Desire, Possession, Rejection

On Counter-Culture    

· Subversion + Coded Exposure
· #AllRappersGoToHeaven (2014–ongoing)
· Fiction and Nonfiction, Double Consciousness, Sacred and Profane
· Surveillance of Black Power Movement + Muslims in the U.S.

Appendix
    · OBSIDIAN Podcast