Afrofuturism and the Black Lit Network

If I was telling a longer history about the ideas and activities that influenced the development of projects like the Literary Navigator Device, I'd need to talk about Afrofuturism (AF) and how thinking of AF as a critical framework guided some of my early projects. 

Another way to put this is that Afrofuturism holds a special place in the intellectual continuum that forms the basis of Black Lit Network and specifically portals like the Navigator and Literary Data Gallery. 

I began participating in the AF list serv run by Alondra Nelson in around 2000, and so by the time I began at SIUE in 2003, I was really to think of myself as an active AF thinker. I taught five different Afrofuturism courses between 2006 and 2013. More important, I began this blog in 2008 as a way of extending my AF work in a public way. 

Collaborating with people on graphic design projects and exhibits with digital recorders and tablets was important for it's own purposes, but it also primed me for future endeavors. The creation of The Novel Category Machine in 2012, served as a blueprint for the Novel Generator Machine, which is now known as the Navigator.      

Related

• Developing the Black Lit Network

• Technology and African American Literary Studies at SIUE