2020 Live Ideas: Alter-Worlds: Black Utopia and The Age of Acceleration (Postponed)

Contemporary Afrofuturism may be defined as an emerging social philosophy of the African diaspora and Africa. Today, partly because of a crisis in globalization, social media and other technological advances, it has grown into a Pan African movement that encompasses artistic, academic, geopolitical and scientific investigation and production. The 2020 edition of Live Ideas, Alter-Worlds: Black Utopia and The Age of Acceleration, will explore this second wave of Afrofuturism as the groundwork for a future that is not bound up with the ideals of white Enlightenment universalism. In partnership with the Black Speculative Art Movement (BSAM) and co-curated by its co-founder and executive director Reynaldo Anderson, the five-day festival will unfold through artistic expression and design, sci fi and speculative writing, fantasy, philosophy, science and technology, critical thinking and social practice. Highlights of the festival will include performances by Saul Williams, an immersive installation by Jasmine Murrell, a symposium, an AfroRave, a comic con and more.