Oakland Museum Reopens with 'Mothership: Voyage to Afrofuturism' Exhibition

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the Oakland Museum of California’s new exhibition “Mothership: Voyage into Afrofuturism,” artists of all mediums imagine the world through a Black cultural lens. As such, “Afrofuturism” is represented in many different visuals, sounds and ideas throughout the exhibition, with one striking quote printed on a wall stating, “In Afrofuturism, science, magic, and the divine feminine are interconnected.” And for fans of funk group Parliament, you can even be “beamed up” by a replica of the mothership that was a mainstay of their live performances. We’ll talk with the show’s curators and one of the participating artists about the exhibition, which highlights author Octavia E. Butler, jazz musician Sun Ra, filmmaker Khalil Joseph and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
0:05.1	At SFO, you can shop, dine, and unwind before your flight.
0:09.2	Go ahead, treat yourself.
0:10.6	Learn more about SFO restaurants and shops at flysfo.com.
0:15.8	Greetings, boomtown.
0:17.3	The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming!
0:19.5	Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile.
0:22.7	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go!
0:26.3	Learn more at Xfinity.com. Restrictions apply. Xfinity internet required. Actual speeds vary.
0:32.2	From KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:48.9	The Bay Area is associated with the future, the beeping shiny future, the cyberpunk future, the cars that make no sound future.
0:56.0	But rooted in the long tradition of black speculative thought, Afro-Futurism also grew here in the late 60s as jazz futurist SunRaw lectured at Berkeley,
1:05.0	and the Black Panthers organized to transform the region into part of a network of revolution.
1:10.0	A new exhibition, Mothership, voyage into Afro Futurism at the reopening Oakland Museum of California,
1:16.2	explores the variety of ways that black people in the global diaspora have imagined liberation,
1:21.1	space travel, ancestral reconnection, the divine feminine, and much more.
1:26.1	We'll board the mothership with the curators that's coming up on Forum after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm going to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
2:06.5	In 1963, a black youth pastor, Orville Luster, spoke to a documentary film crew about his experience coming west.
2:13.5	I thought coming to California was going to be a better place. It has been.
2:18.5	But I think that once you wake up one morning, you look out and you see the Pacific Ocean,
2:22.9	and you say, well, there's no place else to go.
2:25.0	I must take a stand now.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.