Sci-fi literature – Aisha Matthews interview – CreatingSff (Episode 54)
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/
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Guests: Aisha Matthews
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: science fiction, literature, afrofuturism, science, engineering, octavia butler, black panther, escape velocity