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Speculative Worlds

For more than a century, authors have pulled on themes of African folklore, alternative history, and technological advancement to build speculative worlds that impart lessons about the real world and outline the foundations of better worlds to come. Afrofuturism has influenced Black creative worlds from Pulitzer Prize winning novels to Eisner Award winning comics.

…here is why I write what I do: We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories. And we all, every single one of us, no matter who we are and no matter what’s been taken from us or what poison we’ve internalized or how hard we’ve had to work to expel it — we all get to dream

N.K. Jemisin, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author

Speculative Fiction

Star Trek comic book featuring the character Geordi La Forge, played by LaVar Burton

Manuscript page from Samuel Delany’s Jewel of Aptor

Trading cards feature the multiracial superhero group the Blood Syndicate, from Milestone Media.

September 1927 cover of The Crisis magazine, illustrated by Aaron Douglas

"Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur"