The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Art & Afrofuturism panel explores the work
of late author Octavia Butler
PHOTO
ADMINISTRATION
GENEVIEVE GRUENLER
Daily Staff Reporter
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
An Ann Arbor resident wheels his display of two different worlds through campus during the Climate Strike Friday afternoon.
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Experts discuss intersection of Black popular culture, science fiction and activism
The
LSA
Institute
for
the
Humanities and the University of
Michigan Arts Initiative explored how
Afrofuturism — a cultural aesthetic
emerging in the 1990s that combined
elements of science fiction and Black
popular culture — manifests in art today
in a virtual panel Wednesday night.
The panel was a part of the
University’s
Octavia
Butler
Week
programming in honor of African
American author Octavia Butler who
received a MacArthur Genius Grant in
1995.
Four panelists were featured and the
panel was moderated by Christopher
Audain, managing director of the U-M
Arts Initiative. The panel discussed the
intersection of art and Afrofuturism in
light of the upcoming U-M theatrical
adaptation of Octavia Butler’s post-
apocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower.
Naomi
André,
professor
of
Afroamerican and American studies
and women’s and gender studies, began
the panel discussion by talking about
the function of art in an Afrofuture.
Andre said Afrofuturism is a space of
possibility and art can help realize that
possibility.
“Metaphorically
art
can
be
a
spaceship,”
Andre
said.
“The
destination of the spaceship is that space
of possibility … a place where Black
people are treated as fully human. A
place where Black folks do not need
handouts or special treatments. It is a
space where all people are part of the
same whole where the smartest and
the best people come from all racial
backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds.
Art can help us think of these places,
envision these landscapes.”
Tananarive Due, a lecturer in the
department
of
African
American
studies at the University of California
at Los Angeles, spoke about her work
with horror. As a genre, Due said, horror
can be a form of escapism for members
of the Black community because the
danger portrayed is not real, unlike
the ever-present threat posed by white
supremacy.
Due then spoke about her mother’s
experience as an activist in the 1960s.
She said that her parents were living
proof that change was possible through
action and that through activism,
change was already happening.
“I’m often struck by the irony of
how that social agitation in the 1960s
was in sort of a futuristic vacuum,”
Due said. “Because you’re fighting for
a future you do not know how to even
anticipate, and in fact, some of the
things that those activists in the 60s
would have considered futurism were
already happening, but just outside of
their knowledge, which is one of the
things about Afrofuturism that is so
exciting. It’s not only the arts, but it’s the
activism.”
Susana M. Morris, an associate
professor and scholar of Black feminism,
Black digital media and Afrofuturism at
Georgia Institute of Technology, then
spoke about the power she felt when she
first met Octavia Butler.
“The idea that the only constant
(in the world) is change and that we
humans, even working class Black girls
with big ideas have the power to truly
shape our world for the better or worse,
was thrilling,” Morris said.
Morris then spoke about the idea of
a “positive obsession,” something that
Butler described herself as having.
“(Butler) called her deep unmitigated
desire to create art and share her work a
positive obsession,” Morris said. “Butler
said her positive obsession became a
higher calling and wished everyone to
have a positive obsession.
John Jennings, professor of media
and cultural studies at the University of
California at Riverside, also spoke at the
panel about the rise of Afrofuturism and
his work translating Octavia Butler’s
novels into graphic novels.
“I can’t relate how difficult it was to
work with but also the amount of pressure
it was … thinking about this from a kind
of vantage point of us collaborating with
Octavia Butler and trying to figure out
how to translate her words into a graphic
novel,” Jennings said.
In the question and answer portion
of the event, Rackham student Symone
Campbell asked the panelists for
recommendations of texts or films for
Black students who want to learn more
about Afrofuturism.
“Start with the dark matter series,”
Jennings said. “These are collections
of speculative fiction by and about
people of color. They are a really good
subsection of work in various genres.”
Morris added that Afrofuturism is
closely tied to the idea of Black joy, which
celebrates the accomplishments and
experiences of the Black community,
despite centuries of discrimmination
and trauma.
“Afrofuturism
as
a
cultural
movement is fundamentally Black
joy centered, because to posit a future
where Black folk are centered, not
marginalized, where we are absolutely
necessary for the continuance of human
society is a hopeful project, is a project
that is joyful,” Morris said.
In her final remarks, Due said
that younger people have a different
perspective and that the younger
generation has the ability to question
aspects of the world that older
generations have settled into.
“There’s a part of us that has settled
for what reality is and the way the
younger generation has not, they look
out and say why,” Due said. “So let’s …
have the imagination at least to listen
to someone who’s trying to picture and
point a path toward a different way.”
Daily
Staff
Reporter
Genevieve
Gruenler can be reached at gruenler@
umich.edu.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Jonathan Vaughn working with private
investigator on allegations the University
sanctioned Anderson study on athletes
ANNA FIFELSKI
Daily Staff Reporter
California-based company GET BIT to handle the case pro-bono
Jonathan Vaughn shared a press
release on March 11 announcing he
hired a private investigation company
based in southern California, GET
BIT, to investigate allegations that the
University of Michigan “sanctioned”
a study by Dr. Robert Anderson that
researched the sperm of “elite athletes.”
The press release alleges Anderson
forced athletes to provide sperm
samples and illegally sold the sperm to
unknowing parties. According to GET
BIT, the Private Investigator company
is handling the case pro-bono.
In May 2021, WilmerHale, an
independent law firm hired by the
University to investigate allegations of
sexual assault against Anderson, found
that hundreds of the allegations are
credible. The report also stated that
several University officials were aware
of Anderson’s misconduct.
University
spokesman
Rick
Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The
Michigan Daily that WilmerHale didn’t
find evidence of the new allegations
against Anderson.
“While the WilmerHale report
contains references to Anderson’s
interest in male reproductive health,
including the collection of semen
samples, the investigative team found
no evidence of the activities alleged in
the press release you cite,” Fitzgerald
wrote.
Fitzgerald added that the University
provided
many
documents
and
pieces of evidence to the WilmerHale
investigation, but he did not directly
respond
to
inquiries
about
the
University participation in the GET BIT
investigation.
“It’s also worth noting that the
university provided WilmerHale with
unfettered access to more than 200
individuals, 2 million documents from
the Bentley Historical Library, 125
boxes of paper personnel files and tens
of thousands of other documents.”
According to Luis Bolaños, founder
of GET BIT Investigations and the
private investigator for Vaughn’s case,
the “Hail to the Victims” investigation
is considered a criminal investigation.
Bolaños
said
he
reached
out
to Vaughn about conducting an
investigation when he saw a headline
about Anderson and was reminded of a
2020 lawsuit in California that was filed
against a late sheriff who was found to
have been involved in one of the largest
child molestation and sexual assault
cases.
“I had no idea what was happening
in Michigan,” Bolaños said. “I’ve never
heard of Jon. I had no idea who he was.
I had no idea of Dr. Anderson and the
allegations against him. But between
(Anderson and Duffy), there are
thousands and thousands of victims,
so that’s why I first heard about it and
(what) made me want to reach out to
(Vaughn) and talk to him a little more.”
Vaughn said he decided to work
with GET BIT because he and other
survivors are still looking for answers.
“There were two times specifically I
remember offhanded comments where
Dr. Robert Anderson said (he was)
trying to figure out how to create the
perfect Black athlete,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn said he began his personal
investigation
into
his
and
other
allegations against Anderson in 2020
after hearing similar stories from other
survivors.
“This is something that I have
been investigating since early into the
mediation process, (which) dates back
to probably September or October of
2020,” Vaughn said. “It was just very
clear to me and to several of us survivors
that there was an issue with the location
of not only our medical reports, but
we got several stories that they were
destroyed or they kept them for 10 years
and then destroyed (them) or they don’t
exist.”
Bolaños said GET BIT and Vaughn
are working with Promoting Awareness
| Victim Empowerment (PAVE) to
schedule virtual and in-person press
conferences surrounding this issue.
PAVE founder Angela Rose told
The Daily she was inspired to start this
organization after she was abducted
and assaulted by a repeat sex offender
when she was 17. Rose said PAVE is
working on setting up a half-day virtual
summit dedicated to supporting male
survivors.
“People knew that these things were
happening (and) I don’t know if they
just don’t know what to say, or do, or if
their moral compass is broken or who
knows what the reason, but there are a
lot of men in a lot of pain right now and
so I feel like it’s our job to try and do
something proactive,” Rose said.