See the creative “Unessay” work of my Spring 2024 “Afrofuturism” Blount program students in the video below. Among them is Annaliese Skerpan. She did an interpretative dance to deepen her exploration of our complex past, present and future with class content in view.
She performed on the lawn in front of UA’s historic Bryce Hospital. The structure was first constructed in the 1850s and served all people, free and enslaved, since the opening days of the Civil War.
I loved seeing Annaliese push her thinking about Afrofuturism on a University of Alabama Museums property and lawn of our new campus Welcome Center. Annaliese’s “Unessay” delved into the religious beliefs of Sonny “Sun Ra” Blount, the late Birmingham, AL, jazz musician and Father of Afrofuturism, and sci fi writer Octavia Butler, a Los Angeles native with roots in Louisiana and Mother of Afrofuturism.
It was an honor to watch her and her classmates ponder trauma and possibility, key ideas in Afrofuturism, in their Unessay creative projects. Afrofuturism is a term that has been used since 1993 to culturally sort through the experiences of people of African descent. See their Sun Ra-inspired class jam session at Gorgas House Museum, the oldest campus dwelling, here.
catalogue, too 
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