The Black Angel of History

Black Angel
Darkness came into the world as it was told
In it we have got the most beautiful Angels
They are called the Black Angels
—Adewale Ajakanri, 2015

This exhibition, curated by Reynaldo Anderson and the Black Speculative Arts Movement, builds upon an earlier exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with influences from the essay The Black Angel of History and the Age of Necrocapitalism - Terremoto. Through an analysis of visual culture and technology within the genre of Afrofuturism, the Black Angel of History functions as an avatar for Afro-Speculative making and interpreting of counternarratives of a cosmology and cosmogony that re-imagines phenomena for African peoples worldwide and examines the power that creativity wields in the struggle for various freedoms of expression and the politics of resistance.

Showcasing illustrations, graphic design, video, literature, and mixed-media digital and analog artworks, this exhibit features emerging, mid-career and acclaimed artists, writers, performers, and designers.

This online exhibition showcases works currently on display at Zankel Hall, with additional selections curated specifically for the Google Arts and Culture platform. With support from the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives.

The modern Black Speculative Arts Movement formally began in the fall of 2015 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The historic Harlem library was ground zero for the groundbreaking, multimedia visual arts exhibition Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination. The show evolved the possibilities of the visual Afrofuturist genre.

Today, Afrofuturism is emerging as the high culture of a transnational, pan-African, humanistic Astro-Blackness. Contemporary Afrofuturism is the conscious location of African culture and agency in time and space. Within its creative scope are metaphysics, aesthetics, social science, theoretical and applied science, and programmatic spaces.

The Black Angel of History exhibition continues the visual exploration of complex narratives on the Black or African speculative imagination in conversation with the previous Unveiling Visions exhibit. Now, the figure of the Black Angel functions as a messenger for Afro-Speculative making and interpreting of counternarratives of a cosmology and cosmogony that reimagines phenomena for African peoples worldwide. This reimaging is essential during the existential crisis of climate change, fascism, the global COVID-19 pandemic, collapse in biopolitics, and accelerating technological change.

"Nyansapo fell from her ship on an unknown planet, and in an attempt to return she undergoes an immersive search for her bodily, scientific, sound and technological consciousness. Nyansapo is the Adinkra of knowledge who only manages to return to her ship after mythically worshiping her orixás in Afro-Brazilian ancestry." —Zaika dos Santos

"Brother Keep Your Head Up envisions resistance to achieve American assimilation. He does not seek the acceptance of the masses, they do not love him. He refuses to reside in the white imagination, he will not drown in white thought or fright.

His hair is a weapon of force, skin black, weathered, thick, and strong enough to penetrate the stratosphere as he travels back and forth between two worlds. His hair is it’s own autonomous creative reality and the masses gawk, envy, and some swoon. Keep your head up brother, I love you." —June Reddix-Stennis

"A Black screen is the vessel that symbolizes the mind. The imagery scrolling up the screen represents memories, rapid thoughts, experiences, nightmares, dreams, and peace. About 8 million people have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] in a given year. Medical racism is so real. About 2.87 million Americans sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] each year.

Who's talking about TBI & PTSD in the Black community? How many people in the Black community even know the signs and symptoms of TBI & PTSD? Better yet, how many people in the Black community know what healing through art looks like?

Join Two Black women as they share their experiences with TBI & PTSD, as they break down the walls of mental imprisonment, as they heal through art, and as they invite you to join their healing sanctuary." —Safiya Eshe Gyasi

Write No History By Black Quantam Futurism/Rasheedah Phillips

For more information, please go to: https://www.blackquantumfuturism.com/welcome

"Write No History is a short speculative triptych film featuring found and archival footage of The Temporal Disruptors, members of an ancient Secret Society of Black scientists, healers, and writers. Spread out across time in the relative past/present/future at one of their meeting lodges, the Hatfield House in Philadelphia, performing quantum time capsule burying and unearthing rituals to transport quantum time capsules containing tools, maps, clocks, and codes as technologies to hack colonized timelines.

Write No History is directed and produced by Black Quantum Futurism with filmmaker Bob Sweeney.

Featured Temporal Disruptors include: Dominique Matti, Iresha Picot, Marcelline Mandeng, Vernon Jordan III, Angel Edwards, Vitche-Boul Ra, Sheena Powell, Alex Farr, Camae Ayewa, Riot Dent, and Rodnie King." —Black Quantam Futurism/Rasheedah Phillips

Through an analysis of visual culture and technology within the genre of Afrofuturism, The Black Angel of History examines the power that creativity and innovation wields in the struggle for various freedoms of expression and the politics of resistance and victory. The Black Angel of History's task is to shift the geography of reason to navigate the present Metamodern moment, engagement and tension between Afrofuturism and Afropessimism, social death and immortality, and respond to the future challenges of the Metaverse with the Cyberfunk worldbuilding and Pluriverse flair of the Astro-Black Speculative design imagination.