THIS MOMENT IS PREHISTORY

T'Challa, King of Wakanda, aka the Black Panther (source: Geeks of Color)

IN FEBRUARY 2018, Black History Month arrived with a new sense of resolve, as well as a futuristic sheen. Years before, the Obama Presidency marked a shift in the tone of the very word "history": confined for so long to reclaiming the past, it unfurled all at once to claim the present as well. In 2018, a year into an administration which had dedicated itself to dismantling the Obama legacy and unraveling the present,  there was precious little sense of a ground retreat. The urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparking innovation and permutations in music, entertainment and fashion (and compounded by the cultural momentum of the genderqueer and #metoo movements), reframed history as future.

Afrofuturism itself, for so long a cultural undercurrent, exploded into the mainstream with the release of Marvel Studios' much-anticipated Black Panther. What to some was perhaps just the latest superhero blockbuster became a touchstone of broad cultural validation to black moviegoers across the country as it broke advance ticket sales records. Thankfully there are online primers to help put this all in proper context. "The Politics of Marvel's Black Panther," a 2016 post to gamer site Kotaku by Evan Narcisse, charts the Black Panther's evolution, from his creation by (white) Marvel Comics legends Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1966 to the announcement of Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2016 star turn at writing for the character.   HomeTeam History's YouTube video "5 Things You Need To Know About African History Before You Watch Black Panther" outlines the real-world sources of many of the film's cultural, historic, and political references. To be sure, these are not simply fan-songs but perceptive critiques which examine elements of exploitation and empowerment in the ongoing narrative of this popular superhero.

The message in 2018 seemed to be: the past and present are table stakes, a foundation. This moment? It's prehistory.

Check out my Tumblr PROJECT1, launched at the time to explore some of these themes and implications in commemoration of Black History Month. Upcoming posts here on the SiegeAce blog will take a look at African design, fashion and architecture, the design aesthetic of rap and contemporary R&B, and the black roots of Latinx culture.