Afrofuturism Author to Keynote Spring Convocation

Ytasha Womack to Address the Campus Community

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Saxon, jsaxon@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-3607

(BOWIE, Md.) – Bowie State University will welcome prolific Afrofuturism author and filmmaker Ytasha Womack as keynote speaker for the2024 Spring Convocation Wednesday, February 14, at 10 a.m. in the Myers Auditorium of the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts. Center. The convocation is the university’s featured event of Black History Month. 

 Womack is critically acclaimed for her works in Afrofuturism, a genre that centers Black history and culture and incorporates science-fiction, technology, and futuristic elements into literature, music, and the visual arts. Her written work includes Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi & Fantasy Culture (2013), Rayla 2213 (2016), Post Black: How a New Generation is Refining African American Identity (2010), and Beats, Rhymes and Life: What We Love & Hate About Hip Hop (2007).   

A Chicago native, Womack began her career as a journalist. She is a former editor-at-large for Upscale Magazine and former reporter/columnist for the Chicago Defender. She guest edits for NV Magazine and her works have appeared in Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Ebony, Essence, VIBE, and more.  

Womack tours the world championing Afrofuturism and the role of the imagination. Her works in Afrofuturism have been translated into Portuguese and Spanish for markets in Brazil and Latin America.  Her film "A Love Letter to the Ancestors From Chicago" (2017) is an Afrofuturist dance film. It was featured in Afropunk Brooklyn, Black(s) to the Future Fest in Paris, Cultura Ibera Americana in Cuba, Afrotopia in Bristol, England, Reel Time Film Fest in Lagos, Nigeria and the Black Harvest Film Fest in Chicago among others. The film won Best Experimental Film at the Collected Voices Festival.   

Womack also has published essays in the anthologies Black Quantum Futurism: Space Time Collapse, Artists Against Police Brutality. The short Afrofuturist Prince ode “For Digital Girls Who Drink Tonic Water When Purple Rain isn't Enough" appeared in Jalada.com and 2709 Books (Spanish Translation).   

Womack’s film work includes the romantic comedy “Couples Night” (screenwriter) starring Tony Rock and Reagan Gomez Preston, “The Engagement” (director) starring Bernadette Stanis and Clifton Davis, and “Love Shorts” (producer/writer). She was also co-producer for the documentary “Tupac: Before I Wake” and appeared on E True Hollywood Story’s “Rappers’ Wives” documentary as a guest commentator.  

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