The Afro–Futuristic Woman/Girl: The Younger Self in Immortality

• In Event: Emergent Narratives of Girlhood: Black Girl Futures

Abstract

When children enter school (daycare, preschool or elementary school) they begin to organize, commune and unite themselves around age. This is no different for black girls. Numerous statistics suggest that the lives of many black girls are increasingly at risk whether from deprivation of innocence or from loss of self-determination. For this project, I use the speculative fiction of Jewell Gomez and Tananarive Due as I am guided by two questions: What possible narrative artifacts exist for the immortal black girl? And what ideas and possibilities do virtual immortal realities offer our contemporary culture of Black girl magic?

Author

• Juanita Crider, Purdue University