Afrofuturism
Take a journey to the world of Afrofuturism—an ever-expansive aesthetic and practice—where music, visual arts, science fiction, and technology intersect to imagine alternate realities and a liberated future viewed through the lens of Black cultures. Immerse yourself in Afrofuturism, Carnegie Hall’s 2022 citywide festival.
Afrofuturism’s boundless sonic essence is celebrated with jazz, funk, R&B, Afrobeat, hip-hop, electronic music, and more. In education and social impact programs created by the Hall’s Weill Music Institute, young musicians, teachers, and people of all ages explore the infinite possibilities of Afrofuturism.
Across New York City, leading cultural organizations present multidisciplinary programming that touches African and African diasporic philosophies, speculative fiction, mythology, comics, quantum physics, cosmology, technology, and more. A diverse range of online offerings also includes film screenings, exhibitions, and talks with some of the leading thinkers and creatives in this multitiered experience.
An introduction for some and a continued quest for others, this trek across space and time will enrich and revitalize our relationship to new futures and futures past. Whether you know Afrofuturism through Alice Coltrane, the literary genius of Octavia E. Butler, the glowing world of comics, or the mythos of Sun Ra and P-Funk, epiphanies will abound in this experiential saga through the realm of Astro-Blackness.
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Explore More
Meet the Curatorial Council
Learn about the five leading Afrofuturism experts Carnegie Hall brought together to create this visionary festival.
Meet Artist Quentin VerCetty
Learn about the first-ever visual artist commissioned by Carnegie Hall to create a signature work for a festival.
Festival Partners
Abrams Books
The Africa Center
African American Future Society
AfriFuTrinity: Quantum Cosmic Futures
ALL ARTS
American Composers Orchestra
Americas Society
Apollo Theater
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) [Chicago, IL]
Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts [Riverside, CA]
Black & Brown Comix Arts Festival [Chicago, IL]
Black Kirby
Black Pot Mojo Arts
Black Speculative Arts Movement [Philadelphia, PA]
Blacknuss Network [Chicago, IL]
Blacktronika, University of California San Diego Department of Music
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Brooklyn Museum
Centro Cívico Cultural Dominicano
Chicago History Museum
The Children's Art Carnival
China Institute
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center
Congo Square Preservation Society [New Orleans, LA]
Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University [Philadelphia, PA]
Department of Philosophy and Black Studies at the City College of New York
Department of Philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY
Department of Philosophy at Manhattan College
Dieselfunk Studios
Dramatists Guild of America
Fabulize Magazine
Flushing Town Hall
Google Arts & Culture
Harlem Stage
HarperCollins
ISE-DA
Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University
Jazzmobile
Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project
The Joyce Theater
The Juilliard School
Keyes Art Projects
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Literati
Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives
Maysles Documentary Center
MCC Theater
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
National Black Theatre
National Queer Theater
National Sawdust
New York Film Academy
New York Live Arts
Otherworld Theatre Company [Chicago, IL]
Public Records
RefractionDAO
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Sistah Scifi
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings [Washington DC]
Society of Illustrators
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Visceral
Teatro LATEA
United African Association
Universal Hip Hop Museum
University of California, Riverside [Riverside, CA]
URB ALT Media
West Harlem Arts Collaborative
Willie Mae Rock Camp
Women in Comics Collective International
Support for Afrofuturism is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Bank of America.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Support for the visual arts components of the Afrofuturism festival has been provided by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.