AFROFUTURIST INVERSE
5pm- 7pm (ET)
Demo 1INFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale’s Tim Fielder Under the Hood Art Demonstration
Conducted by: Tim Fielder
This live art presentation will focus on the techniques of visual afrofuturism utilized for the groundbreaking graphic novel, INFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale, published by HarperCollins Amistad. The artwork, produced by author/illustrator, Tim Fielder, will showcase how the bridge between the analog and digital worlds blend towards a hybrid form of fully rendered storytelling.
Demo 2
Afrofuturism in VR with Michmash Arts
Conducted by: Micheline Hess
Enjoy a live demo with comic artist, Micheline Hess as she showcases how she sculpts a 3D character entirely in VR! During this demo, she will discuss inspiration, methodology and how she began her journey into digital sculpting during quarantine.
Afrofuturist Comics Roundtable
With Julian Chambliss, Greg Anderson Elysée, Tim Fielder, Jason Reeves and Regine Sawyer
Afrofuturist Inverse is supported in part by Dieselfunk Studios
Tim Fielder is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator born in Tupelo, Mississippi,and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He has a lifelong love of Visual Afrofutuism, Pulp entertainment, and action films. He is known for his graphic novel series, Matty’s Rocket, and his TEDx Talk on Afrofuturism. His most recent work is the critically acclaimed graphic novel, INFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale, published by HarperCollins Amistad. www.dieselfunk.com Insta: @Dieselfunk Twitter: @Dieselfunk
Born and raised in New York City, Micheline Hess is the author and illustrator of the award-winning, fantasy-adventure comic, Malice in Ovenland’. Having graduated from Parsons School of Design with a Master’s Degree in Design & Technology, Micheline loves using Virtual Reality to create visual narratives that elevate and inspire Black women and girls. www.michmasharts.com Insta – @michmasharts.com Twitter – @michmasharts.com
Greg Anderson Elysée is a Brooklyn, NY born Haitian-American writer, educator, filmmaker, and model. He has been teaching various forms of filmmaking, including narrative and documentary, from elementary level to the elderly since 2012. A former journalist for theOuthousers.com, he also ran his own column, (Heard It Thru) The Griotvine, where he showcased independent creators of color and LGBTQ creators. He also wrote for the independent pop culture news website Bleeding Cool. He is known through the community for doing this on a broader scale, all while presenting his thoughts on diversity.
Is’nana: The Were-Spider was his first comic series, and is a multi award winner, including 2018 Fan Award, Rising Star, and Best Male Character, and 2019 Best Writer and Story of the Year (Glyph Awards). Is’nana is based on Anansi the trickster god of the Akan people of Ghana, whose stories have spread for centuries throughout Africa as well as the Caribbean. The Gentleman: Darkness of the Void and Marassa, both published by Evoluzione Publishing, debuted in 2018. Elysée has also published work with Lion Forge via the nationally recognized project Puerto Rico Strong. https://webwaycomics.ecwid.
Jason Reeves is the owner of 133art, a comic book publishing imprint and printer. He is also a freelance illustrator from time to time. His clients have included: HASBRO, Esquire Magazine, USA Today, Wizards of the Coast, Heavy Metal Magazine, Frontline Detroit Coalition.
Jason has co-created, written, and Illustrated the award winning OneNation,Kid Carvers, and RET:CON. This August his newest original graphic novel Pax Samson (co-created with Rashad Doucet) will be released from publisher Oni Press/Lionforge. 133art has also teamed up with MV Media to produce the Changa and the Jade Obeliskcomic adaptation. 133art is also 1/3 of the partnership with Nerdsoul Podcast and Legends Press, who have come together to broadcast the pop culture virtual variety show: The Rent Party.
In addition to being a comic publisher133art, in partnership with MV Media and Hiro! Unlimited are banding together to tackle an important piece of the publishing puzzle, distribution with BIC Distro. Its focus is to get Black Indie content out to the wider audience with the help of comic retailers, bookstores, and anywhere books are sold. For more on Jason, 133art, 133art Printing, and BIC Distro visit: 133art.com and bicdistro.com To pre-order Pax Samson visit: simonandschuster.com
Regine L Sawyer is the writer/publisher at Lockett Down Productions and the Coordinator/Founder of the Women in Comics Collective International. Regine is known for her award winning series ‘Eating Vampires’. https://lockettdown.com/ and https://www.
Julian C. Chambliss is Professor of English and the Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum at Michigan State University. In addition, he is a co-director for the Department of English Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab (DHLC) and a core participant in the MSU College of Arts & Letters’ Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research (CEDAR). His research interests focus on race, culture, and power in real and imagined spaces. His recent writing has appeared in American Historical Review, Phylon, Frieze Magazine, Rhetoric Review, and Boston Review. An interdisciplinary scholar he has designed museum exhibitions, curated art shows, and created public history projects that trace community, ideology, and power in the United States.
He is co-editor and contributor for Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience, a book examining the relationship between superheroes and the American Experience (2013). His recent book projects include Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural, and Geopolitical Domain (2018), Cities Imagined: The African Diaspora in Media and History (2018), and Reframing Digital Humanities: Conversations with Digital Humanists (2021). His current exhibition for MSU Museum, Beyond the Black Panther: Vision of Afrofuturism in American Comics explore Afrofuturist theme comics produced in the United States.
Chambliss is co-producer and host of Every Tongue Got to Confess, a podcast examining communities of color. Every Tongue is the winner of the 2019 Hampton Dunn New Media Award from the Florida Historical Society. In addition, he co-produced and co-hosted the Florida Constitution Podcast, a limited series podcast the won the 2019 Hampton Dunn Internet Award from Florida Historical Society. He is the producer and host of Reframing History, a podcast exploring humanities theory and practice in the United States. Website: www.julianchambliss.com Twitter: @JulianChambliss
