Black {Gendered} Space Time - From The Heavens to Outer Space

Please note: we are donating all proceeds from this lecture to organisations supporting communities affected by Hurricane Melissa. Please give what you can.

This lecture takes roots/routes from Black Futurism via the lens of Black Gendered Space Time to explore the artistic and cultural works of Janelle Monae and Missy Elliot. We will orbit around the writings of the Jamaican cultural theorists Sylvia Wynter and the Philadelphian collective ‘Black Quantum Futurism’ by understanding how Monae and Elliot’s (and others) works critiques the patriarchal and racist conception of ‘the human’ and western ‘mechanical-clock-time.’ We will travel through the works of Monae, Elliot and an array of other artists (like Juliana Huxtable) who all reconfigure Black gendered bodies by embodying non-human identities such as androids, cyborgs, aliens and ethereal beings that explores speculative fiction, space and time travel to re-imagine more equitable societies.

Lecturer - Dr. Janine Francois

Dr. Janine Francois is a Black British feminist scholar whose work interrogates climate justice through the intersecting lenses of Black feminism, anti-colonial theory, and feminist ethics of care. She is Associate Professor and Director of Climate Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). Her interdisciplinary practice bridges academic research, curatorial inquiry, and public engagement to explore the cultural, spatial, and ecological dimensions of climate breakdown. Francois has held curatorial residencies at LCC Studios, Guest Projects Africa, and Hackney Museum, and is an Asiko Art School alumna. She has curated and contributed to programmes at institutions including Tate Britain, the V&A, INIVA, Autograph, Lyric Hammersmith, the Barbican, and the National Portrait Gallery. Her writing has appeared in The Independent, Architectural Review, VICE, and Journal of Visual Culture. Her forthcoming debut book repositions the Atlantic Ocean as a living geography shaped by African diasporic histories and the enduring violences of climate injustice.

Host - Black Psychotherapy

Black Psychotherapy is a mental health service serving exclusively Black and racially minoritised communities. The team provides decolonial, intersectional and anti-oppressive therapy alongside education, training and consultancy on liberation and justice-based approaches to mental health and wellbeing. With a low-cost community clinic in Brixton and sessions available virtually nationwide, Black Psychotherapy promotes an inclusive and culturally attuned approach to mental health that tackles stigma and directly addresses the impact of racial trauma on mental health and wellbeing.

You can find out more about their work on their website and social media.