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Aisha Matthews is studying for her PhD in science fiction literature, specifically Afrofuturism. She also plans the literature track at the Museum of Science Fiction’s Escape Velocity convention. I interviewed her about her studies, goals and interests.

1:29 – Aisha talks about her science fiction and literature studies and talks about Escape Velocity’s literature track. Harry Potter was her first big interest in speculative fiction.

3:08 – She started in pre-med studies but gravitated. She got into public relations after college and then went back and got her masters.

4:34 – Aisha talks about how science fiction allows people to see new realities.

6:19 – Aisha talks about Black Panther and Afrofuturism.   Escape Velocity will have a panel on it. The movie shows some divide between African and African-Americans.

8:46 – Afrofuturism provides alternative realities to Western thought. They try to look at pluralistic experiences.

10:46 – Afrofuturism explores invaders from outer space tropes for example.

13:45 – Afrofuturism existed before the name was even developed. Octavia Butler is probably the first and best author to start with to get into Afrofuturism.

18:00 – Aisha talks about kids getting into science and science fiction. She talks about how science fiction can have a greater effect on interest in engineering and science.

21:10 – Aisha talks about how comic books can inspire. Escape Velocity tries to bridge the gap between pop culture and science.

23:05 – Aisha talks about video game story telling and Afrofuturism. The violence in video games kind of make it difficult to apply Afrofuturism.

28:03 – Aisha talks about how much science people need to know to enjoy or study science fiction.

31:27 – They’ll be talking about Childish Gambino at Escape Velocity too.

32:48 – Her grand vision is to further the value of science fiction to have a funded study program in science fiction literature.

34:41 – The museum site is museumofsciencefiction.org. Escape Velocity can be found at Escapevelocity.events.

 

Links

http://octaviabutler.org/

http://www.museumofsciencefiction.org/

https://escapevelocity.events/

 

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Aisha Matthews

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, literature, afrofuturism, science, engineering, octavia butler, black panther, escape velocity