{"id":55010,"date":"2025-02-07T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=55010"},"modified":"2024-12-28T13:26:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T19:26:45","slug":"afrofuturism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/afrofuturism\/","title":{"rendered":"Afrofuturism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrate Black History Month with Afrofuturism! Afrofuturism is a literary and artistic movement that combines Black history and culture with futuristic and science fiction elements. Check out the following titles available at Davenport Public Library. (Descriptions below provided by the publisher.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Parable of the Sower <\/em><\/a>by Octavia E. Butler<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren\u2019s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren\u2019s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind. – Goodreads<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>How Long ’til Black Future Month?<\/em><\/a> by N. K. Jemisin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.<\/p>\n

Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story \u201cThe City Born Great,\u201d a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis\u2019s soul. – Hachette Book Group<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Binti <\/em><\/a>by Nnedi Okorafor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself–but first she has to make it there, alive. – Macmillan Publishers<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An Unkindness of Ghosts<\/a><\/em> by Rivers Solomon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She\u2019s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she\u2019d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.<\/p>\n

Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship\u2019s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot\u2014if she\u2019s willing to sow the seeds of civil war. – Akashic Books<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>War Girls<\/a><\/em> by Tochi Onyebuchi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria. The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky. In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life. Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together. And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there. – Penguin<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Raybearer<\/em><\/a> by Jordan Ifueko<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you\u2019ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?<\/p>\n

Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as the Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince\u2019s Council of 11. If she\u2019s picked, she\u2019ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere.<\/p>\n

But the Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won\u2019t stand by and become someone\u2019s pawn\u2014but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we\u2019re willing to go for the ones we love.<\/p>\n

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During the month of February, look for the \u201cAfrofuturism\u201d<\/strong> display at all three branches for more recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrate Black History Month with Afrofuturism! Afrofuturism is a literary and artistic movement that combines Black history and culture with futuristic and science fiction elements. Check out the following titles available at Davenport Public Library. (Descriptions below provided by the publisher.) Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler In[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,15,1],"tags":[2516,9696,9695,5196,9694,9702,9699,4417,4062,9693,9698,9700,9701,9697],"class_list":["post-55010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-library-displays","category-reference","tag-afrofuturism","tag-an-unkindness-of-ghosts","tag-binti","tag-black-history-month","tag-how-long-til-black-future-month","tag-jordan-ifueko","tag-n-k-jemisin","tag-nnedi-okorafor","tag-octavia-butler","tag-parable-of-the-sower","tag-raybearer","tag-rivers-solomon","tag-tochi-onyebuchi","tag-war-girls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-ejg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55010"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55313,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55010\/revisions\/55313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}