Midwest BSFA Rewatch: Blade

Midwest BSFA member Tiffany Luckey is back with the fourth installment of our “Rewatch” series, giving us her take on the 1998 film Blade.

Creative Resistance: Why SOBSF Con is good for the “Conscious” Community

If you’re in the Atlanta area the second weekend of June, you should consider attending this event!

Chronicles of Harriet

The Black Arts Movement was the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Imamu Amiri Baraka. Time magazine describes the Black Arts Movement as the “single most controversial movement in the history of African-American literature – possibly in American literature as a whole.”

Both inherently and overtly political in content, the Black Arts Movement was the only American literary movement to advance social engagement as an essential ingredient of its aesthetic. The movement broke from the immediate past of protest and petition (civil rights) literature and dashed forward toward Black Power.

In a 1968 essay, “The Black Arts Movement,” Larry Neal proclaimed Black Arts the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept.” As a political phrase, Black Power had earlier been used by Richard Wright to describe the mid-1950s emergence of independent African nations. The 1960s’ use of the term…

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Jasmine Keitt’s The Preternaturals

Bronx-based blogger/artist/vlogger Jasmine Keitt’s forthcoming webcomic The Preternaturals blends occult and horror with fantasy/sci-fi elements. In this world, werewolves and vampires are real and some humans have super powers. Check out an excerpt of “Nae Nae & the Wolf Cub,” the first of three stories to be released before the comic’s October debut. 

Woke in Sleepy Hollow

Our member, Renee, gives her two cents on the Sleepy Hollow debacle.

Sardonic Sistah Says

For a minute we were all going to move to Sleepy Hollow then we found out that not only could it’s citizens turn a blind eye to a horse being ridden by a headless man around town but it’s creators could also suddenly forget the people of color who initially populated the small burg during it’s first season.

In 2013 Sleepy Hollow took everyone by surprise. It probably took the producers and the network by surprise as well. It was an abbreviated season with 13 episodes but the online fans were vocal about their love so that by the summer it was referred to as the surprise hit of the season.

At Paleyfest fanboys and fangirls were clamoring for autographs and as it entered it’s second season, critics pronounced it the “sleeper hit” of the previous season.

Fast forward three years later and Nicole Beharie is packing her bags and…

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Interview with Mike Tré Randall of the BLKBOARD Podcast

Yesterday, we featured Jermaine Dickerson of the BLKBOARD podcast so of course we have to also feature his co-host Mike Tré Randall! 

Interview with Jermaine Dickerson of the BLKBOARD Podcast

This week, I talked about cosplay, steampunk, speculative fiction and more on the BLKBOARD podcast, run by college buddies Mike Tré Randall and Jermaine Dickerson (pictured), so in turn, we’re doing interviews with the podcasting duo here on the Midwest BSFA blog! (Check back for Mike’s interview on April 15.) We recently talked to Dickerson about mainstream vs. indie comics, the importance of representation and the broader definition of being “nerd.” 

Interview with Afrofuturism 2.0’s Charles Jones

Charles E. Jones, professor and head of the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati, discusses his book Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness and how it expands and broadens the discussion around the concept to include religion, architecture, communications, visual art, philosophy and reflects its current growth as an emerging global Pan African creative phenomenon.

Help Rosarium Publishing Reach The Next Level

I just donated to this campaign. This is the company that published Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany, The SEA is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia, APB: Artists Against Police Brutality, and many many other amazing comic books and novels. Its main focus is harnessing the power of diversity in storytelling and I will support it FOREVER. You should, too.

Troy L. Wiggins

“I believe it’s imperative that people are able to tell their own stories. They can build their own tables rather than ask for a place at the table.” – Bill Campbell, founder, Rosarium Publishing

The last few years has seen the rise of many public conversations in media and fan spaces surrounding the far-fetched idea that stories about marginalized groups/featuring characters from marginalized groups/developed by creators from marginalized groups deserve as much consideration as stories who are borne of creators not from these groups. There is much ado about diversity, and many publishing houses, comic book companies, game developers, and tv/film studios are clamoring to become more diverse. There are some studios, however, who have been committed to prioritizing these stories and properties since they began. Rosarium Publishing is one of those places. And now, Rosarium needs our help to do more and better work.

From the folks themselves:

In…

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