Afro-futurism is an innovative ever-shifting cultural movement that goes back more than 60 years. Most dated origins back to experimental jazz legend Sun Ra in the 1950s, but the movement didn't have a name until 1994. That's when Mark Derry used the term in his essay Black to the Future. Most mainstream sci-fi imaginations of the future are white, and Afro-futurism is a response to this. It's drives to imagine the place that people of color will hold in the decades and centuries to come. Dozens of artists have played in this space over the years, but right now few people are doing it as well as Janelle Monet. Since 2007, Janelle Monet has been working on an ongoing music concept series called Metropolis. In her 2003 debut The Audition, she started to hint at the saga, but the suite really began with her first EP, Metropolis Suite 1, The Chase. The story continued through both 2010s The Archandroid and 2013's The Electric Lady. Set in a distant future, Monet plays Cindy Mayweather, an escaped android who falls in love with the human. Throughout the loose plotline, Mayweather becomes a messionic figure, providing hope for the downtrodden against the great divide, a secret society who have been using time travel to suppress freedom and love throughout the ages. Besides being insanely funky and catchy, the entire suite is packed to the brim with social messages. In an interview with Elle, Monet addressed the most obvious allegory in her story, Androids as a metaphor for people of color. The Android is just another way of speaking of the new other, and I consider myself to be part of the other just by being a woman and being black, she said. There are all kinds of parallels between Androids and the Black experience. The suite talks about Androids being bought and sold as slaves, and in that world Android love is treated like interracial love once was. Androids are even seen to be hyper sexualized, much like people of color have been throughout history. While this allegory is interesting, it's only the beginning in a suite full of complex defiance and symbolism. One of the key themes of Atro Futurism is the question of the past and future of Black culture. Mark Derry posed an important question in Black to the future. Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, imagine possible futures? This theme is reflected through the great divide in Metropolis. They literally erase past history and culture, just like what Derry talks about in his essay. Monet's response to this erasure is to set herself up as a time-traveling rebel. By providing hope and resistance for all oppressed peoples in the past, Monet can help them build a brighter future. My favorite expression of Monet's Afro Futurism comes out with her use of dance. In forms of future, past Afro Futurism and the visual technologies of resistance, John Jennings noted that Afro Futurism often views everything as a type of technology. While Androids and Time-traveler technology so are the very social structures around us. Coming from a perspective of oppression, Black artists have been able to see how the oppressors have wielded technologies of all forms. Through this lens, we can look at dance as part of Cindy Mayweather's technological toolkit. It's an active form of defiance against an impressive ruler and a tool that's used to unite and celebrate. In her videos, Monet's dancing is clearly depicted as one of the most important aspects of Cindy Mayweather. Just look at the video for tightrope, which literally says dance gives people magical powers and then shows a crew using it as escape from an oppressive asylum. Monet understands the empowering nature of dance, and she treats it as a weapon of resistance in the same way that other sci-fi might use blasters to revolt. In a pamphlet she created called the Ten Droid Commandments, she states as much in four words, no freedom without dancing, and just as dance can be technology, music can be too. John Calvert put it best in an essay for the quietest, where he wrote Monet's appropriation of the historically non-black genres of rock, electronic, MGM musical orchestration, cabaret, and folk music allows her to transcend ideological borders. Her music and aesthetic calls back to the early days of soul and funk, just look at the cover of the electric lady and obvious homage to Motown Girl groups, but at the same time she's equally informed by art forms with white histories. Monet's ultimate goal is one of peace and unity for people of all walks of life, and she reflects this in her music. In order to reach this brighter future, she provides a voice for oppressed communities and unites them with the technologies of music and dance. While I've touched on a few aspects of Monet's Afro-futurism here, there are dozens more to be found throughout the Metropolis project. Monet is a brilliant and innovative artist, and one who's more than capable of carrying Afro-futurism into the modern age. Hi everyone, thanks for watching. If you want to read more, I've left some related reading in the description, and overall my Patreon I've released an exclusive short video talking about Monet's sci-fi influences.