Black Histories and Afrofuturisms

It’s Black History Month in Canada and the US, friends. I would encourage you to listen to and amplify Black voices this month (and every month). Here are some I’ve been listening to and reading, and some I’m looking forward to…

Listening

• National Geographic’s Into the Depths, an audio documentary in which Nat Geo Explorer Tara Roberts follows efforts to rediscover the wrecks of ships that carried enslaved Africans. It’s heavy at times, but it’s also joyful as Black divers and communities reclaim their histories.
• LeVar Burton Reads, a podcast that I’ve mentioned before but is totally worth mentioning again. He does a beautiful job of choosing and reading a wide variety of short stories (for adults), some SFF and some not, featuring diverse authors. He also has a podcast for kids called Sound Detectives.
• (Looking forward to…) Black Material Geographies, a podcast about the intersection of Blackness and textiles in the past, present, and future.

Reading

Kai Ashante Wilson, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps. This fantasy novella is a bloody sword-and-sorcery adventure elevated by the way the author plays with language. The main character, Demane, code-switches between Black American slang and other dialects when he’s speaking, while the narration is more poetic and literary. It’s set in a secondary world based on Africa – and I do mean Africa as a whole, because there’s a lot of travelling and we get a sense of places beyond the edges of the story, too. And the characters are all beautifully drawn, from Demane’s queer love interest (no HEA, though) to the caravan security grunts they’re travelling with. One of the best books I read last year.

Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby. A near-future novella full of violence, suffering, and anger about what it can look like to be Black in America, and yet it’s also about love, protection, and hope. It’s fierce in so many senses of the word.

Nalo Hopkinson, Sister Mine. This is a wild contemporary-fantasy ride through complex family relationships, demigods, Toronto, hoodoo, lake monsters, cats, music, kudzu, and more…as you can tell by the wonderful cover. Brown Girl in the Ring has many of the same elements and is equally cool.

N.K. Jemisin, the Broken Earth trilogy. These are just mind-blowingly good epic/post-apocalyptic fantasy. They’re pretty dark at times, but wow is she a master of her craft, from the worldbuilding to the characters to the narrative itself.

Octavia Butler. Okay, I’m still working my way through her oeuvre because nobody ever grabbed me by the collar and said SHE IS ONE OF THE GRAND MASTERS OF SF YOU MUST READ HER which I’m still mad about. (Likewise, I’m also just starting on Samuel Delany.) Again, very dark but incredibly powerful writing. I’d recommend Kindred (time travel) as a starting point, or the near-future Parable of the Sower (but please note that the sequel requires all kinds of content warnings).

Further reading (Black SFF authors/books on my radar whom I just haven’t gotten to yet):

• Maurice Broaddus, Sweep of Stars
• Kacen Callender, Queen of the Conquered
• P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer
• Megan Giddings, Lakewood
• Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf
• Alaya Dawn Johnson, Trouble the Saints
• Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom
• Courttia Newland, A River Called Time
• Leslye Penelope, The Monsters We Defy
• C.L. Polk, Witchmark
• Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
• Rivers Solomon, The Deep
• Tade Thompson, Rosewater
• Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

Okay, who did I miss? Who should I pick up next? Who’s on your must-read or want-to-read list?