Natasha A. Kelly

The Comet Reloaded

  • Dialogue
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Without knowing, Black intellectual and advocate for social rights W.E.B Du Bois with “The Comet”, one of his first speculative short stories, became instrumental in developing course for a transnational, interdisciplinary enterprise now known as “Afrofuturism”.

After the Berlin scientist, author, artist and activist Natasha A. Kelly organized a three-day symposium in cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer in 2018 to mark Du Bois’ 150th birthday, she is now continuing her engagement with the cosmopolitan in #HAUonline.

Du Bois wrote “The Comet”, in 1920 when the western world was trying to recover from the Spanish Flu. 100 years after the pandemic, the world is facing a new apocalyptic turnaround: Corona, also known as Covid-19, is keeping the world at bay. Economic, health and political systems are being irritated once again as history repeats itself. In conversation with Natasha A. Kelly, Reynaldo Anderson, founding director of the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM) and professor of Communication Studies at Harris Stowe State University, reflects on Afrofuturism before and after Covid-19.

In July 2020 “The Comet –150 years W.E.B. Du Bois”, the reader to the symposium that took place in Berlin will be published at Orlanda Verlag in cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. It introduces the Black Speculative Art Movement (BSAM) into the German context and brings together a selection of lectures, interviews, articles and visual art works.

Dates

Past
Tue 23.6.2020, 21:00 / HAU Youtube Channel

Credits

Production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Presented as part of #HAUonline.

HAU3000 / Positions, Projects, Publications

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