The Mighty Struggle: A Town Called Miracle

• In Event: Archiving Art as a Legacy to Preserve Pasts/Futures

Abstract

My contribution is a surrealistic graphic narrative featuring a protagonist named The Struggle. This character represents an amalgam of Afrofuturism and historical fiction. The Struggle inhabits a mystical branch of a lynching tree named The Weight. A mystical force is passed as an artifact through various dimensions and generations of individuals whom it chooses as heir to the identity of The Struggle via The Weight. The artifact imbues The Struggle with amazing powers just long enough for them to make a positive societal impact.
In 1920, The Struggle arrives in an alternative universe in the town of Miracle, Mississippi. Miracle’s existence is protected by a powerful forcefield, and its residents include numerous Black inventive geniuses. Yet, an antagonist, “The spirit of Jim Crow” a.k.a. The Murder, finds Miracle, Mississippi and attempts to destroy it by causing a race riot. However, the townspeople escape into a marginalized dimension, and a team of super-powered archivists (The Black Arts Secret Technology Taskforce [B.A.S.T.T.]) springs forth from this amazing town to archive and protect Black history and culture throughout time and space.
The town of Miracle acts as a diegetic topography filled with possibility and power. This presentation explores those aspects and more.

Author

• John Jennings, University of California - Riverside