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weeksvILLe puMzI X : speculate BLACK acetate
a sound collage sourced from black wax dealing with afrofuturism and black speculative fiction. This sound collage was inspired by the screening of the sci-fi film Pumzi at Weeksville Historic Houses during the Summer of 2010. That film imagines World War III, the Water War and the beginnings of the Black character’s bold journey to a new fertile world. It is executed with the inspiring cinematic excellence of a George Lucas film. The vistas sighted in this film are breath-taking, the technology introduced in its water-depleted context is jolting. The only disappointment about this production, born from the efforts of an up & coming Kenyan-born female filmmaker, is that it is less than 35 minutes long.
The screening was part of Weeksville’s programming on Black Speculative Fiction and was accompanied by a discussion with writer Kiini Salaam and her reflections on studying under Octavia Butler , an award-winning Black sci-fi writer. As expected , the discussion flared with enriching Q & A and Show & Tell and I introduced the mix that I played out as DJ/sound provider for the event, weeksvILLe puMzI X.
I had been contemplating this mix for many years before the opportunity to play it at Weeksville on a beautiful summer evening amongst an audience of afrofuturism enthusiasts. My intrigue with the concept of an imagined Black future peaked more than a decade ago, around the time Kodwo Eshun ’s More Brilliant than the Sun was published. The book plucked hyper theories on rhythm, psychoacoustics, and music culture from the ether and revealed memes that had never been synthesized in quite the same way before. Or at least not in the same language that Eshun had invented. Then, the Internet was much newer and the community, Afrofuturism, was listserving brainfood by Paul D. Miller, Alondra Nelson and others on the daily.
The sounds found within this mix are all recorded moments on black vinyl. Sources ranged all genres of music, spoken word, recorded skits, sound effects, historical dramatization, etc. Each was recorded for widely differing purposes and audiences but are pieced together here to illustrate my Afrofuturist narrative.
FOLLOW for now, MUCH more to come.
ENJOY!!
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