Afrofuturism celebrated at National Gallery of Canada art conference

When Kelvin Nyeusi-Mawazo Gumbs was growing up, he rarely saw characters who looked like him in the comics he read. When they did feature Black characters, the details were off. 

"There's a whole bunch of Black women in my life and none of them look like Storm," he told CBC's All In A Day, referring to the X-Men character's shiny, straight white hair and blue eyes.

Nyeusi-Mawazo Gumbs, an author and owner of Black Sun Comics, used his experience to inform his work. He aims to increase Black representation through the use of Afrofuturism.

Afrofuturism is an art movement that fuses futuristic technology with African history and culture, according to Yanaminah Thullah. She's an emcee at the Cosmic Northside Afrofuturistic Canadian Art conference, which kicked off Friday and continued at the National Gallery of Canada on Saturday.  

The event featured artists and speakers of African and Afro-diasporic descent and challenged visitors to think about what the future of Black storytelling could look like.

"Blackness is historical, present and for the future. I think we often think of Blackness in the context of history or suffering or plight and so [much] other negative imagery," Thullah said.

Afrofuturism, she said, offers artists a chance to change that.

"This is just the beginning of learning about Afrofuturism and I hope people can welcome Afrofuturism in more art spaces"

Building accurate representation

For many, Afrofuturism is about building fictional worlds with accurate representation. In the movie Black Panther, for example, the story represents Black and African cultures in a science fiction setting.

"It's futuristic, but it still has a visual language that resonates back to African roots in terms of language, colours," said Andy Akangah, an illustrator and owner of AKARTS Comics. "You can sort of see what the future might look like if we were in a different timeline. If things had maybe gone differently."

Even with the emergence of Afrofuturism in mainstream media in stories like Black Panther, Nyeusi-Mawazo Gumbs said it's important to recognize a range of varied cultural experiences — and there's still a ways to go. American Afrofuturism often focuses on characters with different backgrounds or histories than Black Canadians.

"It's very subtle, but [the difference is] there," he said. 

Those subtle hints at a character's background or culture can range from the language they speak to the locations they grew up in, like nods to characters' homes in both Trinidad and Canada, or storylines that reflect Canadian political structures and reconciliation efforts.

The important part, for Nyeusi-Mawazo Gumbs, is that they're represented positively.

16:37Celebrating the creativity of Afrofuturism in Canada

This weekend Black creatives from across the country will come together for the first Afrofuturistic Canadian Art Conference in Ottawa. Toronto comic artist Kelvin Nyeusi-Mawazo Gumbs and local artist Andy Akangah reflect on how Afrofuturism has pushed the boundaries of their imaginations.

According to Thullah, inclusion in the National Gallery of Canada is just the start of a growing movement to include Black voices in art and sci-fi reimaginings of the future.

"A lot of these institutions historically and presently don't represent us," she said. "So being able to have a seat at the table, being able to host this event this weekend, is a great first step."