Afrosurreal Manifesto: Afrosurreal Manifesto: Black Is The New Black-A 21st-Century Manifesto

Afrosurreal Manifesto: Black Is the New black
—a 21st-Century Manifesto.
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B R O WS E
Afrosurreal Manifesto: Black Is the New black—a 21st-

Century Manifesto
D. Scot Miller
Black Camera
Indiana Universit y Press
Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2013 (New Series)
pp. 113-117
ARTICLE
View Cit at ion
In lieu of an abst ract , here is a brief excerpt of t he cont ent :
Afrosurreal Manifesto
Black Is the New black—a 21st-Century Manifesto 1
D. Scot Miller (bio)
I’m not a surrealist . I just paint what I see.

—FRIDA KAHLO
The Past and the Prelude

In his int roduct ion t o t he classic novel Invisible Man (1952), ambiguous
black and lit erary icon Ralph Ellison says t he process of creat ion was “far
more disjoint ed t han [it ] sounds … such was t he inner-out er subject ive-
object ive process, pied rind and surreal heart .”
Ellison’s allusion is t o his book’s most perplexing charact er, Rinehart t he

Runner, a dandy, pimp, numbers runner, drug dealer, prophet , and
preacher. The prot agonist of Invisible Man t akes on t he persona of
Rinehart so t hat “I may not see myself as ot hers see me not .” Wearing a
mask of dark shades and large-brimmed hat , he is warned by a man
known as t he fellow wit h t he gun, “List en Jack, don’t let nobody make
you act like Rinehart . You got t o have a smoot h t ongue, a heart less
heart , and be ready t o do anyt hing.”
And Ellison’s lead man ent ers a world of prost it ut es, hopheads, cops
on t he t ake, and masochist ic parishioners. He says of Rinehart , “He was
years ahead of me, and I was a fool. The world in which we live is fluidit y,
and Rine t he Rascal was at home.” The marquee of Rinehart ’s st ore-
front church declares:
Behold t he Invisible!
Thy will be done O Lord!
I See all, Know all, Tell all, Cure all. You shall see t he unknown
wonders. [End Page 113]
Ellison and Rinehart had seen it but had no name for it .
In an int roduct ion t o prophet Henry Dumas’s 1974 book Ark of Bones
and Other Stories, Amiri Baraka put s fort h a t erm for what he describes as
Dumas’s “skill at creat ing an ent irely di erent world organically connect ed
t o t his one … t he Black aest het ic in it s act ual cont emporary and lived
life.”
The t erm he put s fort h is Afrosurreal Expressionism.
Dumas had seen it . Baraka had named it .
This is Afrosurreal!
This Is Not Afrosurreal
Surrealism
Leopold Senghor, poet , first president of Senegal, and African surrealist ,

made t his dist inct ion: “European Surrealism is empirical. African
Surrealism is myst ical and met aphorical.” Jean-Paul Sart re said t hat t he
art of Senghor and t he African surrealist (or Negrit ude) movement “is
revolut ionary because it is surrealist , but it self is surrealist because it is
black.” Afrosurrealism sees t hat all “ot hers” who creat e from t heir act ual,
lived experience are surrealist , per Frida Kahlo. The root for “Afro-” can
be found in “Afro-Asiat ic,” meaning a shared language bet ween black,
brown, and Asian peoples of t he world. What was once called t he “t hird
world,” unt il t he ot her t wo collapsed.
Afro-Futurism
Afro-Fut urism is a diaspora int ellect ual and art ist ic movement t hat t urns
t o science, t echnology, and science fict ion t o speculat e on black
possibilit ies in t he fut ure. Afrosurrealism is about t he present . There is
no need for t omorrow’s-t ongue speculat ion about t he fut ure.
Concent rat ion camps, bombed-out cit ies, famines, and enforced
st erilizat ion have already happened. To t he Afro-surrealist , t he Tasers
are here. The Four Horsemen rode t hrough t oo long ago t o recall. What is
t he fut ure? The fut ure has been around so long it is now t he past .
Afrosurrealist s expose t his from a “fut ure-past ” called RIGHT NOW.
RIGHT NOW, Barack Hussein Obama is America’s first black president .
RIGHT NOW, Afrosurreal is t he best descript ion t o t he react ions, t he

genuflect ions, t he t wist s, and t he unexpect ed t urns t his “browning” of
Whit e-St raight -Male-West ern-Civilizat ion has produced. [End Page 114 ]
The Present, or Right Now
San Francisco, t he most liberal and art ist ic cit y in t he nat ion, has one of
t he nat ion’s most rapidly declining black urban populat ions. This is a sign
of a great er illness t hat is chasing out all art ist s, renegades, daredevils,
and out cast s. No black people means no black art ist s, and all you yet -
unt ouched freaks are next . Only freaky black art —Afrosurreal art—in t he
museums, galleries, concert venues, and st reet s of t his (slight ly) fair cit y
can save us!
San Francisco, t he land of Afrosurreal poet laureat e Bob Kaufman, can

be at t he forefront in creat ing an emerging aest het ic. In t his land of...
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Afrosurreal Manifest o: Black Is t he New black—a 21st -Cent ury Manifest o, concent rat ion
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Afrosurreal Manifesto: Black Is the New black

NO INST IT UT IONAL AFFILIAT ION LOG IN

Afrosurreal Manifesto: Black Is the New black—a 21st-

View Cit at ion

In lieu of an abst ract , here is a brief excerpt of t he cont ent :

I’m not a surrealist . I just paint what I see.

The Past and the Prelude

Ellison’s allusion is t o his book’s most perplexing charact er, Rinehart t he

Ellison and Rinehart had seen it but had no name for it .

Dumas had seen it . Baraka had named it .

This Is Not Afrosurreal

Leopold Senghor, poet , first president of Senegal, and African surrealist ,

Afrosurrealist s expose t his from a “fut ure-past ” called RIGHT NOW.

RIGHT NOW, Barack Hussein Obama is America’s first black president .

RIGHT NOW, Afrosurreal is t he best descript ion t o t he react ions, t he

The Present, or Right Now

San Francisco, t he land of Afrosurreal poet laureat e Bob Kaufman, can

Project MUSE Mission

News & Announcement s

POLICY & TERMS

Now and always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires.

B uilt o n the Jo hns Ho pkins Unive rsity Campus

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