Future Stories Forum 23rd July at RISE

Manchester is officially the European City of Science for 2016 and we’re very happy to announce that our next event, Future Stories, will be hosted as part of the Science in the City Festival.

Join us for our free event on 23rd July where we’ll be looking at some of the biggest topics in science and tech today. Our special guests will include Dawn Edge and Ian Forrester who will be posing the questions they face in their every day research only this time, it’s up to us to find the answers!

Three Big Ideas.
Three Questions.
Can we find an answer?

Future Stories is an event where we gather to solve the big questions posed by science and technology. Combining citizen science with design thinking, we’re gathering people of different skills and backgrounds to make a difference to the big questions of today.

We’ll be hearing from experts working on the big fields in science and tech such as Big Data, Quantified Self, Psychology and Epigenetics. Together we’ll be creating new narratives shaped by our activities and discussions.

HOW IT WORKS

Each topic is split into 3 chapters:

Chapter One – The first chapter starts with guest talks from one of our three speakers where each speaker poses a question at the end.

Chapter Two – Is a space where we can respond to the question, beginning with ‘How?’.

Chapter Three – Collectively we start visioning through mindmaps, design ideas etc.

Together, we can create the solutions for futures.

Tickets are available on eventbrite. For more information, feel free to contact us via email to afrofutures.uk@gmail.com

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…which is great, but, then what?

AfroFutures_UK is a collective of people from different backgrounds and cities, with different skills. Most of our time is spent thinking about what we can do better, so I thought it would be fun to start documenting our journey to becoming whatever it is that we become (hopefully a well grounded, sustainable AfroFuturist collective) and putting thoughts to paper… or rather pixels.

Although we’re still planning some cool events (there is so much good stuff coming for BHM2016!) lately we’ve been thinking about doing more long term projects. The funny thing about being a collective is how we’re all working on cool things individually – Nikky is doing amazing performance art; Laydeez Do Comics, Birmingham has grown into a great community thanks to Charlotte and the comicking community of Brum and between the rest of us, there’s a plethora of articles, talks, essays and what-have-you around the interwebs – but it still takes time and thought to bring it all together.

An Interview with Nikky Norton Shafau

In the run up to Future|Journeys on 21st May, we thought we’d do some quick takes with the various artists and hackers who will be joining the event. Nikki Norton Shafau is a Manchester based artist who will be leading the Storybook workshop. Much of her work is focussed on using the transformative power of narrative to change our perceptions and destinies and we wanted to find out a little bit more about what makes her tick…

 

AfroFutures_UK: It’s so great to talk with you and I’m especially happy you’re going to be leading a workshop and a guest panellist on the 21st. Do you mind introducing yourself in your own words?

Nikky Norton Shafau: My name is Nikky. I am a little bit strange… I want to become a Storybook.

AF: What do you think defines your art?

NNS: I like exploring self, the unknown, reality and fantasy. I like being silly and serious. I am interested in african oral storytelling traditions, playing with the boundaries between ‘audience’ and artist and finding my own voice; sense of belonging.

Future|Journeys

What does the Future mean to you? What do you want to see happen? How can we make it happen?

These are the central questions we will be exploring during Future|Journeys, a collaboration with Writing on the Wall literature festival featuring a range of speakers and activities on May 21st at District, Liverpool. As part of the speculative fiction themed festival, we’re bringing our style of AfroFuturism to Liverpool, with our assorted gang of radical misfits, techies, hackers and storytellers.

WHO WILL BE THERE?

Throughout the day, we’ll be hosting a variety of workshops. James Medd will be leading the Arduino workshop where you can learn how to create interactive electronic creations, combining code and LEDs! Want to learn how to code, create a website or program your own game? Join the MossCode folk who will be running informal coding sessions – they’re friendly and welcoming of all skill sets, but you can contact workshop leader Ikem Nzeribe in advance for more information.

Perhaps more suitable for maturer audiences, we’re very honoured to host the fantastic Christopher Lutterodt-Quarcoo who will be leading ‘The Second Coming‘, a workshop which asks how past traumas can impact our ability to imagine and create the future. You can check out our ‘preview’ interview with him here.

Parallel to this is the Storybook workshop led by AfroFutures_UK sister, Nikky Norton Shafau which is an invitation for us to recreate our stories of the self. We’ll be using our imaginations to envision how this can be used to inspire and channel new ideas about what we can achieve both on an individual and a community level. 

Last but certainly not least, our special guest panellists who will be speaking during the day about AfroFuturism, it’s origins and how we can all become AfroFuturists in our own communities. First up is Jon Daniel, an artist whose exhibition ‘Afro Supa Hero’ is on display at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, having been shown at prestigious museums and galleries like the V&A Museum of Childhood. Ytasha Womack, author of Afrofuturism: the World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and founder of iAfrofuturism will also be speaking at the panel which will kick off the event.

The event is open to everyone. Whether you’re an AfroFuturist aficionado, funked to Clinton back in the day or just want to find out a bit more about it, everyone is welcome to come along, learn and share together.

Want to find out more? Follow the conversation on #futurejourneys16 or send enquiries to afrofutures.uk@gmail.com. Remember, its the 21st May so don’t miss it. We’ll see you there!