MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Afrofuturism is a concept, theoretical framework, and movement that incorporates the reimagination, restructuring, and revisioning of Black people spread throughout the African Diaspora. To speak conceptually about Afrofuturism is to think about the past, present, and future as it works in tandem with Black people and their relationship with or without technology. In Afrofuturism text, queerness is mentioned, however, few authors discuss the importance of explicitly and intentionally discussing Black Queer Afrofuturism. What does Afrofuturism look like through a Black Queer Lens and alternatively, what does Black Queer Theory look like through an Afrofuturist lens? The Technological Closet is an Afrofuturist concept that expands on C. Riley Snorton’s idea of the Glass Closet. The Technological Closet is the ways in which the sexualities of Black (Queer) bodies are configured within technological spaces (most commonly the internet + social media) through presentation and self-preservation. The Technological Closet is important because it helps us understand how black sexualities are monitored, restricted, and controlled via the world wide web. Black Queer artists play with the idea of the public and private using the internet, technology, and their practice to express their gender identity and sexuality. This essay discusses my conceptual framework for the ‘Technological Closet’ and explores it through the lens of Black queer artists and their body of work as it relates to the internet and the public eye. So, with all this being said, what other ways can we began to fill the void, and put the Queer in Afrofuturism?