Art Criticism: African Renaissance, How the Prefix ‘Afro’ May Arrest Imagination & Manifesto Salesmanship.
In 2013, I published this essay on IndieWire/Shadow and Act and it was later republished in This Is Africa as " "Art Criticism: is the prefix ‘Afro-’ (as in “Afro-futurism”) arresting our imagination and manifesto salesmanship?" The essay proposed that the "Afro-" prefix functioned as a marketing tool that tethered the African imagination to Western manifestos rather than allowing for a sovereign identity. The essay prompted a variety of responses from movement leaders, including Rasheedah Phillips (The Afrofuturist Affair) and Sherese Francis , and has since been cited in academic research: D. Scot Miller (October 04, 2016): In his essay "Afrosurreal: The Marvelous And The Invisible," the author of The Afrosurreal Manifesto identified my work as the "prime example" of the critique against the "Afro-" prefix. Rasheedah Phillips & Sherese Francis (2014): In direct response to the essay, Phillips (The Afrofuturist Affair)...