FUTURES LAB BOOK CLUB
Exploring Afrofuturist Literature Together
Next Meeting: September 27th
10am CST / 11am EST via Zoom
Sign up below to get the Zoom link in your email!
What is TCIA's Book Club?
The Twin Cities Innovation Alliance, TCIA, in collaboration with Dr. Tanya Clark, has started an Afrofuturist book club, inspired by Tanya's keynote at last year's D4PG. Open to all, we will dive into Afrofuturist literature and celebrate and explore dystopian, imaginative, and empowering narratives that allow us to imagine our own futures and reflect on our own experiences and futuristic power.
Welcome to the Community
By joining Future Labs Book Club you're also a member of our TCIA network, our overarching community. You'll be able to keep up with book club activity both here, but also in your main Mighty Networks feed.
Use this link to receive email notifications for book meetings and officially sign up for the club:
Let's get to reading!
Current Book: Binti
by Nnedi Okorafor
Join us as we explore this award-winning novella that follows Binti, a young Himba woman who becomes the first of her people to attend the prestigious Oomza University, setting off on an interstellar journey that will challenge everything she knows about herself and her world.
Get ready for our Sept 27th discussion!
Our Book Club Curator & Facilitator
"Why is Afrofuturism Important to You?"
"My love for speculative genres began in childhood with Dungeons & Dragons, horror, and sci-fi, but discovering Octavia Butler in college introduced me to Black speculative fiction and Afrofuturism. This was transformative, merging my passion for the fantastic with explorations of race, identity, and liberation."
"Why is Afrofuturism Important To You?"
Hover over Tanya's image to discover her answer! See her answer in the panel below!
Dr. Tanya N. Clark is a teacher and dreamer shaped by HBCU culture and a childhood love of all things speculative. She grew up devouring novels by Stephen King and V. C. Andrews, playing Dungeons & Dragons with her big brother, and obsessing over Star Wars, Star Trek, comics, and horror flicks, long before she realized these genres could reflect Black life and possibility. This realization came as an undergrad at Clark Atlanta University, where she first encountered the dynamic work of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Octavia Butler.
"Why is Afrofuturism Important To You?"
"My love for speculative genres began in childhood with Dungeons & Dragons, horror, and sci-fi, but discovering Octavia Butler in college introduced me to Black speculative fiction and Afrofuturism. This was transformative, merging my passion for the fantastic with explorations of race, identity, and liberation."
— Dr. Tanya N. Clark
Her fascination deepened during graduate study at Temple University, where her understanding of Black speculative traditions expanded to include pioneers like Pauline Hopkins and Samuel R. Delany.
Now an Assistant Professor at Morehouse College, Dr. Clark teaches and writes at the intersection of Black literature, memory, and liberation. Her popular course black in Wonderland explores Black sci-fi, horror, and fantasy as frameworks for cultural critique, offering students new ways to think about identity, power, and the future.