On Queer Afrofuturism with Kara Keeling

In this episode of The Dream Deferred, we sit down with Kara Keeling, USC Professor of Cinema and Media Studies to talk about her book Queer Times, Black Futures. This book explores Afrofuturism through the lens of Black feminisms and queer theory. Engaging with the work of Grace Jones, Audre Lorde, Sun Ra, and Octavia Butler, all of whom spent time in California, Keeling presents multiple constellations of Black queer life as models for the future. As Keeling emphasizes, we can’t imagine a just and equitable future without engaging with Black artists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers.

Special thanks to the Mellon Foundation’s Sawyer Seminars for supporting this podcast.

Produced, edited, and sound designed by Molly McAnany.

Edited by Adam Burston.

Co-produced by Lisa Parks, France Winddance Twine, and Kim Yasuda.

All music in this episode courtesy of Soundstripe.

Cover art by Dani Kwan.

Sources referenced on this episode:

• Afrocentricity and the Western Paradigm
• Edouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation
• Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House

For more on our guest, Kara Keeling:

• University of Chicago Department of Film & Media Studies
• Queer Times, Black Futures
• Twitter

For more on our host, Lisa Parks:

• UC Santa Barbara Department of Film & Media Studies

This podcast was funded by a 2021-22 Andrew Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar grant in support of “Race, Precarity and Privilege: Migration in a Global Context" at UC Santa Barbara. For more information on this interdisciplinary collaboration and Co- PIs see: https://raceandmigrationucsb.org.