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Harn Museum of Art hosts Afrofuturism event

Museum guests explore the Ghanaian fashion exhibit at the Harn on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)
Museum guests explore the Ghanaian fashion exhibit at the Harn on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)

Correction appended: A previous version of this story contained the wrong name of the event's DJ.

Afrofuturism Week 2025 and the Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida celebrated Afrofuturism with “Art After Dark” at the Harn Museum on Thursday, an event that included live music, free food, and a fashion show.

For Abby Hanus, Afrofuturism was a new concept. The 22-year-old biology senior at the University of Florida hadn’t heard of the term before attending the “Art After Dark” event at the Harn Museum of Art Thursday.

Hanus learned about the event through her International Scholars Program at the University of Florida, and it introduced her to the idea of merging Black culture with futuristic visions. Even though popular pieces of media like “Black Panther” have explored Afrofuturism, Hanus said she never knew the term existed.

“There’s just not a lot of events,” she said. “It’s just not talked about.”

Models showcase Afrofuturistic fashion during the "Art After Dark" fashion show at the Harn Museum on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)
Models showcase Afrofuturistic fashion during the "Art After Dark" fashion show at the Harn Museum on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)

Afrofuturism, a term coined by author Mark Dery in the early 1990s, is a way of combining Black culture and history to view the future, specifically through technology and science. Dery defined it as an “African American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future.” For Hanus, the meaning was more complex.

“It’s more or less how the world and technology interact with each other to create the vision and the future that people hope to see,” she said. “Perhaps it’s their portrayal of the past and how that’s impacted the future.”

The event started at 6 p.m. with a lecture by author Stefanie Dunning. About 50 people filed into the Eloise R. and William H. Chandler Auditorium at the museum as Dunning shared a passage from her upcoming book, “Other/World(ly): A Black Ecology of Outer Space,” via Zoom. The excerpt addressed space travel and exploration and was followed by a question-and-answer session.

Harn Museum guests sit on the floor to watch the "Art After Dark" fashion show on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)
Harn Museum guests sit on the floor to watch the "Art After Dark" fashion show on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)

“Art After Dark” is part of Afrofuturism Week 2025, a 15-day series that celebrates Afrofuturism. Porchia Moore, one of the event organizers and associate professor and director of the Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship at UF, said she hopes the event will help educate others on Afrofuturism. She said one thing she prioritized as she worked to bring the event to fruition was bringing people together.

“Yes, we are saying Afrofuturism, and it is centered in Blackness, but it’s also about collective connectivity so that we are all collectively building a new world,” Moore said. “It’s not exclusively just about Black people, which I think is really important, because I want to make sure that everyone feels like they have an access point to Afrofuturism.”

Event guests listen as author Stefanie Dunning read an excerpt from her upcoming book, "Other Word(ly): A Black Ecology of Outer Space," at the Harn Museum of Art on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)
Event guests listen as author Stefanie Dunning read an excerpt from her upcoming book, "Other Word(ly): A Black Ecology of Outer Space," at the Harn Museum of Art on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Tanya Fedak/WUFT News)

After Dunning’s lecture, sound artist Godfred Agyapong entertained attendees with hits like Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).” Guests entered Harn’s gallery for the fashion show, and as they waited for it to begin, some took to the middle of the floor and danced to Agyapong's music.

With no admission fee, the room quickly filled with people. By the time the show began around 7:45 p.m., every seat was taken, resulting in those hoping to glimpse Afrofuturistic fashion to sit on the floor. The audience cheered as each model walked out and circled around the room, showcasing their metallic boots and pieces from Ghana.

As the event came to a close, Virginia R., 73, sat with her husband outside the museum’s gift shop. They are frequent museum-goers, and even though they attend about 10 times a year, she said this event stood out to her.

“I had never heard the term [Afrofuturism] until a few weeks ago,” said Virginia, who requested her last name be kept anonymous due to privacy reasons. “But it’s interesting to me. When the very nature of diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack – when equality access is under attack, I’m glad to see us moving toward unifying the country and population.”

Tanya is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.