METROPOLARITY

Chicago Zine Fest
2015-05-08 17:00 - 2015-05-09 18:00 (America/New_York)
Pick up some of our zines, stickers, and pins with No Shame Distro at the fest!
All info here: http://chicagozinefest.org/?page_id=1218

A ⌔T ◉ N E ℳ E N T №.2 BLACK QUANTUM FUTURISM RELEASE PARTY
2015-05-22 22:00 | Dahlak Paradise, 4708 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19143, United States
A ⌔T ◉ N E ℳ E N T
< ♏︎E T A ⌔ T ◎ N E >
A ⌔ T U N E ♍︎ E N T
№.2
▲ ▼ ◼︎ ▼◀︎
◉ BLACK FUTURISM ✪ AFRIKAN RIDDEMS ▲
◎ SPACE BASS ◼︎ ANCESTRAL NOISE ►
◆ QUANTUM DYSTOPIA ◀︎ SOULDROMEDA ●
● ZULU NATION HEARTBEATS ◎ DARK MAGI BLUES ▼
◉ FREE JAZZ HOLOGRAMS ⌾ BLACK MASS POETRY
s o u n d s / w a v e s / w o r d m a g i c
black quantum theory and practice vol. 1 book release

Wildseeds Black Futures Fest
2015-05-28 15:00 - 2015-05-31 18:00 | Ibis Conservation Room, 1401 Leonidas St, New Orleans, LA, 70118, United States
FESTIVAL WEBSITE: www.blackfuturesfest.strikingly.com
VOLUNTEERS: Email NOLAWildseeds@gmail.com if interested in being a volunteer 🙂
Save the date for the Wildseeds #BlackFuturesFest going on in New Orleans from May 28th-31st!
The Black Futures Fest is a celebration of the Black fantastic and will showcase the creative praxis of artists, writers, and cultural workers of color in New Orleans whose work engages around issues of Afrofuturism, Black science fiction, and the Black radical and speculative imagination—work exploring race, gender, class, social change, and the future of Black and Brown bodies and communities.
Open to the public, the weekend of festivities will feature film screenings, workshops, panel discussions, literary readings, and art and music by local artists and musicians. More than anything, the festival will provide a space to celebrate Black and Brown artists, writers, teachers, librarians, readers, and publishers engaged in shaping the future of Black people at the intersections of futurism, arts, and social change.
CHECK THIS PAGE REGULARLY FOR EVENT UPDATES OR VISIT www.blackfuturesfest.strikingly.com!

2015 Trans Literary Salon
2015-06-04 19:30 - 21:30 | PA Convention Center, 1101 Arch St , Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
In conjunction with the 2015 Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, Leeway presents the Third Annual Trans Literary Salon highlighting the work of emerging literary artists from a diversity of genres including poetry, fiction, memoir, and spoken word. At the Philadelphia Convention Center, June 4 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm.
Featured Performers: poet Cyrée Johnson (ACG ’13), sci-fi writer Maggie Eighteen (ACG ’14), poet, Kavindu Ade, performer Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, and writer/activist, Tyler Vile. Co-curated and Hosted by Annie Mok (LTA ’14, ACG ’13), and J Mase III (ACG ’07). Audience members are invited to bring work to share!
Special thanks to the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference
Community Partners: Apiary Magazine, awQward, Gender Reel Lambda Literary, Metropolarity, Morris Home, Thread Makes Blanket, Trans Oral History Project, Topside Press, Trans Masculine Alliance Network, Trans* Wellness Project, Trans Women of Color Collective
Cyree Jarelle Johnson is a Black non-binary essayist and poet living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Their writing considers disability as a cyborg femme reality, femininity as resistance and rebellion, and Black pessimism. They are a founding member of A Collective Apparition, a Black queer and trans interdisciplinary arts collective. Their work has been featured in publications both domestically and internationally including Black Girl Dangerous, Feministing, and most recently in the anthology Poems for the Queer Revolution.
Kavindu Ade
Kavindu Ade is a 24 year old Wordsmith, Jedi, and Black Boy Extraordinaire. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Afro-Caribbean immigrants his poetry is a dance between cultures. While best known for his gender identity poem entitled “IT,” Kavi’s work centers on his navigation of intersecting identities – among those, the relation of his Blackness to his transcendence of gender. Through his poetry the world unfolds itself into moments of cruelty, but also beauty, wonder, and becoming. Kavi has been performing since 2009 when he made his debut into the spoken word scene at Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam. After two consecutive years competing on the international stage Kavi went on to coach the Philly Youth Poetry Slam Team that competes at BNV. He is also the coach of Temple University’s Slam Team. Kavi has performed at conferences from Vancouver, Washington to Saint Paul, Minnesota, and has had the pleasure of gracing the stage at Grinnell College, Rutgers University, Ursinus College, and Clark University among others. Off stage, he is probably in his room enjoying a good bowl of cereal, binge watching detective shows, or posting his best attempts at immaculate selfies.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
An actor, singer, dancer and writer she began producing her own cabarets at the age of seventeen and made her New York cabaret Debut at Don’t Tell Mama’s in 2011. After beginning to study the Dances of her Ancestors at Mamasita Studio, she began combining African, Latin and Native American rhythms to her shows. Although primarily known for her explosive style of cabaret, Lady Dane is a passionate actor who has worked at such theaters as the Kennedy Center, Adventure Theater, Round House Theater, Theater for the New City, Spooky Action Theater, Arena Stage, and LaMama in New York in which she originated the role of Madame Cordelia Mcclain. She has also produced a reading of her new musical Roaring, and premiered a workshop of her one woman show Klytmnestra at SpookyAction Theatre. A Poet, and advocate for Trans Voices in the arts she became the first Trans Woman of Color in DC published author of a work of fiction, Yemaya’s Daughters.
Maggie Eighteen
A hybrid kid cyborg, Philadelphia native, and former girl-object prototype. Eighteen is frustrated/pissed with academic distinction, white supremacy, and fixed rather than fluid treatment of language and identity. A co-founder of Metropolarity sci-fi collective, they enjoy slang/dialects, brand confusion, bushido Mars death stuff, and nuance. When they are not working professionally in critical media literacy and empowerment areas, they write speculative fiction about bodies/objectification, intimacy/class, neighborhood/community, and the violence in relying on binaries to understand the world.
Tyler Vile
Tyler Vile is a poet, performer, and activist from Baltimore, Maryland whose work has been published in Gadfly, The Bicycle Review, and Bluestockings Magazine. She’s done reviews and interviews for Punk Globe Magazine since 2007, has spotlighted at Sparkle, DC’s monthly queer open mic series, and slammed at Capturing Fire, DC’s annual queer spoken word festival. Her full-length book of poetry, Never Coming Home, is forthcoming on Topside Press.
[FACEBOOK RSVP]

Malportado Kids, SCRAAATCH, Shakai Mondai, MMGz + Abdul Kadir (.__. ) 6/7 @ LAVA SPACE
2015-06-07 08:00 | LAVA zone, 4134 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
Malportado Kids (pvd)
https://malportadokids.bandcamp.com/
SCRAAATCH (phl via dc)
https://soundcloud.com/scraaatch
Shakai Mondai (phl)
https://soundcloud.com/shakaimondai
Moor Mother Goddess + Abdul Kadir (phl)
http://ow.ly/MVFla
MAGUS MONK
birthday eighteen minus sci-fi short opener
https://allthatsleft.bandcamp.com/
$5 or w/e
$25 if ur bringing colonial gaze (limited space @ venue)
quench ur thirst at home
sunday attire/timeline

Metropolarity for New Museum Seminars: (Temporary) Collections of Ideas around SPECULATION
2015-06-14 13:00 - 15:00 | New Museum, 235 Bowery Street, New York, NY, 10002, United States
Join Metropolarity on a Sunday afternoon at New York’s NEW MUSEUM for their public seminar series, this season themed SPECULATION. Metropolarity will be in dialogue with New School scholars/designers/media theorists Ed Keller and Orit Halpern, addressing speculative realist philosophy and future-oriented speculative thought through fiction and design work. Say what.
This focus on sustained research and ideas in development stimulated the establishment of the Seminar series, in which small groups of multidisciplinary thinkers gather over a three-month period to consider the Education Department’s Seasonal thematic, with pressing conversations related to art and the expanded art context examined in relation to broader issues in society. Entitled New Museum Seminars: (Temporary) Collections of Ideas, the series directly references the Museum’s history of “collecting” ideas, rather than art objects. The goal of the Seminars is to provide a platform for discussing, debating, and enacting ideas as they emerge, in real time, and to develop scholarship or other forms of joint creative production relating to art’s place in culture. The Seminars utilize some recognizable graduate-level and reading-group pedagogical strategies, such as syllabi and weekly closed, peer-led reading sessions, but are distinguished by their context within the contemporary art museum. In addition to the weekly sessions, there is institutional support for some form of group production to grow out of the shared course of study (conferences, performance residencies, online publications, Resource Center exhibitions, etc.). A group of approximately fifteen participants from various backgrounds (including artists, dancers, curators, critics, educators, and scholars, but also those with specialties not directly art-related) constitute each Seminar group, along with R&D Season artists in residence and New Museum Education Department staff members who work on the topic. Unique among museums, the Seminar truly functions as a “think tank” within a programming and exhibitionary institution, fostering new ideas and work between outside and intra-institutional participants (in the past, New Museum curators, editors, researchers, and educators have also applied).

Sass n smash 2: SGNLS, Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air, Joyce Hatton, the films of April Anderson, Andromeda Sky more tba
2015-06-27 19:00 | Vox Populi, 319 N. 11th St, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Hello! Your new friends at ANDROMEDA SKY (Danni, Leah, and Alex) would like to welcome you to our debut ritual! Yes, our “band” is embarking on our first journey and we’d like for you to attend! This is it!
**SGNLS**
cosmic space time mind tunnels, alternative universes, dystopio-future***a furious mesh-mash of tangled wires, dislodge connections***if Orwell and Moroder did compositions for the Sex Pistols
http://www.toomodernworld.com/
**Good Night Stars Good Night Air**
real transient dreams, space star gazing planetarium psychedelia**if wind swept wisps made dance music remixes for Tangerine Dream
**Andromeda Sky**
debut outing for stellar witches**confusing transcendental noise and shambolic tectonics**if Massive Attack and Starhawk went to church with Sonic Youth
**Teenage Bigfoot**
all gnarled out wolf-mangle of urban sea pirates**skateboard shanties for the spike and claw sects
Teenagebigfoot.bandcamp.com
**Joyce Hatton**
interdimensional myriad mind-spaces fluctuating in heartbeat time**casual dream poet , primordial goddess of the universe
**April Anderson**
the eye
“The earth owes me nothing. I owe the earth”– Vinnie Paz

CHROME CITY THE 3RD: BANJEE FT VJUAN ALLURE
2015-08-08 19:00 - 23:00 | AUX Performance Space, 319 N 11th Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
THE MYSTERIOUS CHROME CITY WILL APPEAR ONCE AGAIN…
CYBORG NOISE QUEER ELECTRO SABOTAGE AFROFUTURIST NO WAVE
FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST VJUAN ALLURE originator of the HA remix vogue trax u know n love
WITH READINGS BY Metropolarity
AND PERFORMANCES FROM
Icon Ebony Fierce
Mr. Manic
King Azaz
Andromeda Sky
John Morrison
VISUALS BY CHASKA SOFIA
more tba
BANJEE
WHAT IS CHROME CITY ABOUT? WATCH FROM 13:40-13:54 AND YOU’LL KNOW. IT’S EVERYTHING.

A ⌔T ◉ N E ℳ E N T №.3
2015-08-14 20:00 | The Art Church of West Philadelphia, 5219 Webster St, Philadelphia, PA, 19143, United States
A ⌔T ◉ N E ℳ E N T
< ♏︎E T A ⌔ T ◎ N E >
A ⌔ T U N E ♍︎ E N T
№.3
▲ ▼ ◼︎ ▼◀︎
◉ BLACK FUTURISM ✪ AFRIKAN RIDDEMS ▲
◎ SPACE BASS ◼︎ ANCESTRAL NOISE ►
◆ QUANTUM DYSTOPIA ◀︎ SOULDROMEDA ●
● ZULU NATION HEARTBEATS ◎ DARK MAGI BLUES ▼
◉ FREE JAZZ HOLOGRAMS ⌾
sound//waves
H P R I Z M
https://hprizm.bandcamp.com/
L I L D A V E
https://soundcloud.com/lildave
E X A KT L Y (DC)
https://soundcloud.com/cmpvtr-clvb
MOM² (DC)
MIND OVER MATTER MUSIC OVER MIND
https://soundcloud.com/bushmeat
ORGANIX TRIO (DC)
M M G Z
moormothergoddess.bandcamp.com
ANLI MARS
Special guests tba
Projections by Black Quantum Futurism
+++PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS GO TO HELP SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
ROCKERS BBQ WEEKEND 2015
This event is apart of Rockers BBQ Weekend #RBW5 A 3 day diy festival based in Philadelphia showcasing marginalized artists and artist that create work that speaks out against injustice.
DAY #2 – AUGUST 15TH – ROCKERS – LAVA SPACE
https://www.facebook.com/events/410789349104259/
DAY #3 – AUGUST 16TH – RITUAL CAUSALITY – AUX VOX POPULI
https://www.facebook.com/events/1447678018874191/

RBW5 / ROCKERS BBQ WEEKEND 5
2015-08-15 19:00 | LAVA zone, 4134 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
ROCKERS! —- AUGUST 15TH ————– LAVA SPACE
===========================================
THE KOMINAS
REBELMATIC
KAHLIL ALI
SLAPDASH SOUNDSYSTEM
ANDROMEDA SKY
DJ HARAM
TRNSGNDR/VHS
2 SPECIAL GUESTS TBA
HOSTED BY ST. SKRIBBLY LACROIX
WE WILL HAVE BBQ FOOD & SODA POP ON DECK
BRING BAKED GOODS LIKE CAKE & MORE CAKE
————————–———–====================
THE FEST TURNS 5 YEARS THIS AUGUST
WE WILL ALSO BE CELEBRATING 10+ YEARS
OF DOING ROCKERS IN PHILLY.
DAY #1 – AUGUST 14TH – ATONEMENT / ATUNEMENT – THE ART CHURCH
https://www.facebook.com/events/1112257575456155/
DAY #2 – AUGUST 15TH – ROCKERS – LAVA SPACE
https://www.facebook.com/events/410789349104259/
DAY #3 – AUGUST 16TH – RITUAL CAUSALITY – AUX VOX POPULI
https://www.facebook.com/events/1447678018874191/
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING OR VENDING OR WHATEVER EMAIL SDFSBOOKING@GMAIL.COM
ROCKERS IS A MONTHLY SHOW AND FESTIVAL THAT SHOWCASES BLACK/ MOOR / POC / QUEER / TRANS/ WOMYN ARTISTS THAT SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE SYSTEM

RITUAL CAUSALITY 001
2015-08-16 18:00 - 20:00 | AUX Performance Space, 319 N 11th Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Black Quantum Futurism presents its first 2-hour gallery performance RITUAL CAUSALITY 001 featuring ancient anthropological finds, African/Black Diasporic time and memory rituals, and live sound experiments. Experience BQF theorists discovering the first computer in 100bc, lecturing on Sun Ra synchronicities, and Quantum Mapping our collective futures. RITUAL CAUSALITY 001 is a retrocausal retrospective starting with the latest BQF work, ANTI-KY-THE/RA, then spiraling backwards to the beginning with the NonLocality series. BQF’s first exhibition of works will be a multimedia experience that will include dance, sound, projections and speculative literary performances.
Black Quantum Futurism is inspired by afrofuturism, quantum physics, and African traditions of spatial-temporal consciousness. BQF weaves speculative reality with ritual, image and sound to present innovative works that offer practical techniques for escaping time loops, oppression vortexes, and the digital matrix.
BQF Collective is an artistic and literary collaboration between Camae Defstar (Rockers!; MMGZ) and Rasheedah Phillips (The AfroFuturist Affair; Metropolarity) which explores the intersections of futurism, literature, art, sound, creative media, DIY-aesthetics, and activism in marginalized communities. Forming in Summer 2014, the collective has created a number of community-based events, experimental music project, several zines, and an anthology of experimental essays called “Black Quantum Futurism: Theory & Practice Vol. 1,” which includes visions from other futurist writers and visionaries. www.blackquantumfuturism.tumblr.com /www.blackquantumfuturism.bandcamp.com
Day #3 Rockers Bbq Weekend #RBW5
$7-10 requested donation
Cash bar
Light refreshments
Zines/books/art for sale
This event is apart of Rockers BBQ Weekend #RBW5 A 3 day diy festival based in Philadelphia showcasing marginalized artists and artist that create work that speaks out against injustice.
DAY #1 – AUGUST 14TH – ATONEMENT / ATUNEMENT – THE ART CHURCH
https://www.facebook.com/events/1112257575456155/
DAY #2 – AUGUST 15TH – ROCKERS – LAVA SPACE
https://www.facebook.com/events/410789349104259/

NOWTOPIA
2015-08-28 19:00 - 22:00 | Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University’s URBN Annex, 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
|̿ ͇| |͇̿ ͇̿ ͇̿| ͇ Λ ͇/ ̿ ̿|̿ ̿ |͇̿ ͇̿ ͇̿| |̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿’ | |̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿|
Nowtopia is a place, an existence, a conciousness. Nowtopia is a constantly moving, intricate journey, a swim through nebula, the wet starstuff of human birth.
While Nowtopia doesn’t have a corporeal place to call home, it exists nonetheless as tachyon, flitting through our collective conscious as a memory, a movement or as hope. On August 28, we are presenting Nowtopia as an orbital space-station, a vector and nexus point where star-mapping, healing, and flux converge to create warps to other realms.
Organized by Chrome City denizens, conceived at the orbital worshipping point Laser Life, and realized through collective means via Metropolarity, Nowtopia is the blueprint vision visor, the conduit, the space place where time exists interdimensionally, never moving — artists exists like super-heroes as vibratory manifestations, as stories.
Each artist will set up in a different space, performing in a flowing “mix”, trans-imposing visual and kinetic imagery in accompaniment to their sounds. Dancers and movement mages will be present throughout the space. The idea is to provide a temporary autonomous zone, through art and music, with a nod towards super-hero bases, sci-fi academies and temporally autonomous non-localities.
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╚══════.♥. ═══════════════════╝
FEATURING READINGS BY METROPOLARITY
Ras Mashramani
Rasheedah Phillips
Alex Smith
Magus Eighteen
(effaced from facebook, find em here:
https://instagram.com/cyborgmemoirs/)
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VISUALS BY MARTIN PEEVES
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SOUNDSCAPES BY COUNTERFEIT
|̿ ͇| |͇̿ ͇̿ ͇̿| ͇ Λ ͇/ ̿ ̿|̿ ̿ |͇̿ ͇̿ ͇̿| |̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿’ | |̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿ ̶̿|c

Philly Zine Fest
2015-08-30 12:00 - 17:00 | The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
we may or may not be there.

Paper Jam Small Press Fest 4
2015-09-05 12:00 - 18:30 | The Silent Barn, 603 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11206, United States
The fourth installment of Paper Jam, a twice-annual and FREE small press / mini-comic / ‘zine fair held at the Silent Barn on Saturday, September 5th, 2015 and hosted by the Silent Barn’s own Ditko! ‘Zine Library.
Paper Jam brings together a selection of local up and coming small press artists and cross pollinates their work with the art and music scene of the Silent Barn. Paper Jam is fully curated by a regularly rotating crew including: Robin Enrico, G.W. Duncanson, Megan Manowitz, Liz Pelly, and Ølivia Fox
Exhibitors:
1.) Jeanette Wall
http://miscreantrecords.com/tag/zine/
2.) Rumi Hara
http://www.rumihara.com/comics.html
3.) Matt Crabe
http://mattcrabe.storenvy.com/
4.) Tom Toye
http://illogicalcomicsestate.tumblr.com/
5.) Esther White
http://estherswhite.net/
6.) Metropolarity (Philly)
http://metropolarity.net/crew/
7.) The AfroFuturist Affair (Philly)
http://www.afrofuturistaffair.com/
8.) Lambey Press
http://lambeypress.com/about/
9.) The Black Lesbian DIY Fest
https://blacklesbiansdiyfest.wordpress.com/
10.) Annie Mok (Philly)
http://heyanniemok.tumblr.com/
11.) Cathy G. Johnson (Providence)
http://cathyboy.tumblr.com/
12.) Robert Richburg
http://robertrichburgart.tumblr.com/
13.) O. Horvath (Providence)
http://queenofswordsinverted.tumblr.com/
14.) Julian Sh333p
https://www.facebook.com/Sh333p.graphix
15.) Allyssa Yohanna
http://www.allyssayohana.com/
16.) Hag Collective
http://hagcollective.tumblr.com/
17.) David Beyers (Boats) / Darren Shekailo
http://davidisboats.tumblr.com/
18.) Ray Ray Books
http://rayraybooks.com/
19.) JR Zuckerberg
http://floofyslandofwonder.tumblr.com/
20.) Ilana Blady
http://ilanablady.com/
21.) Elvis Bakaitis
https://elvis007.wordpress.com/
22.) Alex Krokus
http://alexkrokus.com/
23.) Tycho Horan
http://www.tychohoran.com/
✳✴❇
Performances in the 603^ Space
Including:
Black Quantum Futurism
https://blackquantumfuturism.bandcamp.com/
Readings from:
Metropolarity
&
NYC Zine Community
+MORE TBA+
See also: Silent Barn’s Safer Spaces policy http://silentbarn.org/about/saferspaces

Geekadelphia Presents: The Future of Philly Sci-Fi and Fantasy @ The Free Library
2015-09-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central Library | Skyline Room – 4th Floor, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Philadelphia has been a nexus for science fiction and fantasy writers and fans for longer than many of us can remember. Numerous authors have made their homes in Philadelphia and produced some of the best works speculative fiction has to offer. The first Hugo Award was given out here. Isaac Asimov lived here. SF grandmaster Samuel R. Delany taught at Temple. But where is Philadelphia Sci-Fi and Fantasy heading? On September 9 at 7:00pm, in the beautiful Skyline Room of the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, you’ll have the chance to learn about the past, present, and future of sci-fi and fantasy in Philadelphia.
Led by notable science thriller author Jon McGoran, five of our best local authors will delve into topics like the founding of the Hugo Awards, the recent resurgence of fantasy on TV, how the fast-paced tech industry influences fiction, and so much more! After the main discussion, there will be time for the you, the lovely audience, to ask any questions you would like.
After the panel and Q&A are finished, the night is still not over! Big Blue Marble Bookstore will be on site selling each of the author’s newest books. You’ll have plenty of time to chat with your favorite authors and get your copies signed.
Below you’ll find a bit more about our excellent panelists and moderator for the night:
Fran Wilde is an author and technology consultant. Her first novel, Updraft, is out now. Her short stories have appeared in publications including Asimov’s, Nature, Tor.com, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her interview series Cooking the Books–about the intersection between food and fiction–has appeared at Strange Horizons, and Tor.com.
Gregory Frost is the author of novels including the Shadowbridge series (Del Rey) and Fitcher’s Brides (Tor). His short stories have appeared most recently in Asimov’s, Supernatural Noir (Ellen Datlow, ed.) and Apex Magazine. He’s director of the fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College.
Michael Swanwick has won five Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award in his long career of science fiction. He is the author of Dancing with Bears and the short story collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow. He has also made contributions science fiction field with critical essays as well as a biography of Hope Mirrlees.
Rasheedah Phillips is a public interest attorney, author, mother, Afrofuturist, and Aries living and working out of Philadelphia. She is also the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair, and a founding member of Metropolarity Spec Fic Collective. She recently independently published her first speculative fiction collection, Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales), and an anthology of experimental essays from Black visionary writers called Black Quantum Futurism: Theory & Practice Vol I. Phillips was recently a 2015 artist-in-residence with West Philadelphia Neighborhood Time Exchange. This fall she will be presenting at the Afrofutures UK Unconference, and performing, presenting, and guest curating at the AFROFUTURISM NOW! Festival in Amsterdam. Stay up to date and subscribe to the Future Light Cone newsletter.
Siobhan Carroll is an Assistant Professor at University of Deleware who specializes in British literature from 1750-1850 – the turbulent historical period called the “Romantic Century” – and in modern science fiction and fantasy. She is interested in the ways that literature has shaped our understanding of empire, community, and the natural world. Her book, An Empire of Air and Water, is out now.
Stephanie Feldman grew up in Philadelphia and studied writing at the University of Pennsylvania and then Barnard College. Her debut novel, The Angel of Losses, is winner of the Crawford Fantasy Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. It was included in best-of-the-year lists from the Washington Post, Book Riot, and Locus Magazine.
Jon McGoran is the author of the biotech thrillers Drift and Deadout, from Forge Books. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is the author of the forensic crime thrillers Freezer Burn, Blood Poison, and Body Trace, from Penguin Books. His short fiction, nonfiction and satire have appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to promotion, networking, and service work.
Come out and support your local authors, library, and this little ol’ geeky blog!
Geekadelphia Presents: The Future of Philly Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Wednesday September 9 at 7:00pm
@ The Free Library of Philadelphia Central Branch 4th Floor, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Admission is totally FREE and you should RSVP to the Facebook Event!

Ferguson is the Future Symposium: Speculative Arts & Social Justice
2015-09-14 08:00 - 18:00
“Ferguson is the Future”:
Incubating Alternative Worlds Through Arts, Activism, and Scholarship
What stories about power, difference, and belonging fuel the social crises we face today? How does visionary fiction offer us models for creating new possible worlds? Can the combined insights and interventions of artists, activists, and scholars plot a different course forward? “Ferguson is the Future” is part of an ongoing collaboration to imagine and create alternative worlds that are more just and representative of humanity.
This symposium brings together a multigenerational panel of speculative fiction writers, activists, filmmakers, academics, and artists to discuss the historical, present-and-future manifestations of a social reality we wish to create and thrive in. As we work to shape change, we will use this space as an incubator and laboratory to grow new visions of the worlds we want to exist. Please join us for a day-long celebration and investigation to explore these timely issues.
Major support for the symposium was provided by a grant of the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project in the Council of the Humanities and a grant of the Lewis Center for the Arts.
Additional Sponsors:
Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, Princeton Public Library, Princeton Department of English, Princeton Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Princeton Department of African American Studies.
A LIVESTREAM FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE WATCHED HERE

CO-ORGANIZERS
MOYA BAILEY
RUHA BENJAMIN
AYANA A. H. JAMIESON, Ph.D.
GUEST SPEAKERS
REYNALDO ANDERSON
STEVEN BARNES
LISA BOLEKAJA
ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN
ERIN CHRISTOVALE
DJ LYNNÉE DENISE
M. ASLI DUKAN
TANANARIVE DUE
JOHNETTA ELZIE
NETTRICE GASKINS
AMIR GEORGE
ANDREA HAIRSTON
NALO HOPKINSON
WALIDAH IMARISHA
JOHN JENNINGS
DENNIS LEROY KANGALEE
COLORED GIRLS HUSTLE
SORAYA JEAN-LOUS McELROY
DERAY_MCKESSON
ALONDRA NELSON
NNEDI OKORAFOR
DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
BRITTANY N. PACKNETT
NUMA PERRIER
OUR OWN RASHEEDAH PHILLIPS
SOFIA SAMATAR
DOROTHY ROBERTS
NISI SHAWL
BE STEADWELL

PHILA•LALIA small press // hand made book & art fair
2015-09-17 12:00 - 2015-09-19 18:00 | Tyler School of Art, 2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, United States
PHILALALIA is a three-day small press/hand made book and art fair that brings together poets, publishers, zine makers, book artists, printmakers, comics artists & creative enthusiasts in a vibrant arts venue to showcase & sell their work.
PHILALALIA 2015 will take place Thursday-Saturday, September 17-19, from 12-6pm. The fair & all on-site events will be held at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, 2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA.
In addition to the book fair, there will be readings and performances, discussions & panels, and workshops and receptions throughout the day, as well as nighttime off-site events in different venues throughout the city. Click here for schedule information.
The fair and all related events are FREE to attend & open to the public.

NY ART BOOK FAIR at MoMa PS1
2015-09-18 12:00 - 2015-09-20 19:00 | MoMa PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue on 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY, 11101, United States
No, we’re not gonna be there. But pick up a hot new story from Eighteen in Temporary Agency collective’s premier imprint of queer erotica/intimacies.

Metropolarity LIVE at the Kelly Writers House WXPN 88.5FM
2015-09-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Kelly Writer’s House, 3805 Locust Walk , Philadelphia, PA, 19139, United States
LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration between the people of Kelly Writers House and WXPN (88.5 FM). Six times annually between September and April, the Kelly Writers House hosts a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, all from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. LIVE is made possible by generous support from BigRoc.

AFROFUTURES_UK Conference & Exhibition Weekend
2015-10-10 10:00 - 18:00 | MAD LAB Manchester Digital Laboratory, 36-40 Edge Street , Manchester, M4 1HN , United Kingdom
AfroFutures_UK is a weekend event celebrating the intersection of futurism and the black experience. Featuring artists, academics, and activists, they aim to promote Afrofuturistic endeavours in the arts and technology. Metropolarity’s own Rasheedah Phillips, founder of the AfroFuturist Affair and Black Quantum Futurism collective, will be there as one of several excellent guest speakers.

AfroFutures_UK is a new collective made up of artists, writers, activists and academics interested in exploring the future black experience through multi-media and disruptive technologies.
Our seminal event is a Conference//Exhibition where we will be using themes and inspiration from Afrofuturism to probe and dissect our visions of the future, from the sociological to the scientific. We aim to bring together a range of theoretical discourse that touch on this aspect, from womanism/black feminism, queer theory to liberation theology and afrocentric philosophy.
There will be a series of talks during the day as well as film screenings, performances and practical workshops. The current list of confirmed speakers and workshop leaders can be found here. You can follow us on Twitter @AfroFutures_UK

Afrofuturism NOW!
2015-10-14 10:00 - 2015-10-17 18:00 | WORM, Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The AfroFuturist Affair/Black Quantum Futurism will be performing, presenting, and guest curating at the AFROFUTURISM NOW! Festival
The avant-garde is black! Afrofuturism is a cultural movement that has been existing for a couple of decades in America, Europe and Africa. Some prominent Afrofuturists are Sun Ra, George Clinton, Jeff Mills and Science Fiction writer Octavia Butler. Today, there’s a new wave of Afrofuturist writers, performers, visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, bloggers, activists. Contemporary Afrofuturists – Rasheedah Phillips, Ytasha Womack, King Britt and many others – fuse science fiction imagination with avant-garde & DIY culture while reflecting black diaspora.
From 14th to 17th October, WORM will celebrate contemporary Afrofuturism with the festival “Afrofuturism Now!”. In preparation of this event, our program will look back at the roots of this super-interesting cultural movement, with an extensive film program and a lecture in June.

LASER LIFE queer sci-fi reading series POTLUCK EDITION
2015-11-01 08:00 - 2015-11-30 17:00
THAT’S RIGHT WE’RE DOING THE DAMN THING ONCE AGAIN
IF YOU ARE A TRANS AND/OR QUEER PHILLY CAT AND WRITE/MAKE SOME KIND OF PERFORMABLE SPECULATIVE FICTION THAT YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH A ROOM PACKED FULL OF YOUR ILK, DROP US A LINE AT METROPOLARITY@GMAIL.COM

Future Perfect: A screening & workshop exploring future imaginaries from the New Right to the AfroFuturist Affair
2015-11-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Slought, 4017 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Slought is pleased to announce “Future Perfect,” a screening and workshop exploring future imaginaries from the New Right to the AfroFuturist Affair, on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 from 6-8pm. The event will feature the Philadelphia premiere of Daniel Tucker’s feature-length video essay Future Perfect: Time Capsules in Reagan Country (54 minutes, 2015), followed by a dialogue between the artist and author Rasheedah Phillips, creator of The AfroFuturist Affair, exploring the liberatory potential of language, and the relationship of writing to social justice and alternative conceptions of the future.
The conversation at Slought takes place just over ten years after Ronald Reagan’s death, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and his departure from the office of the President of the United States. It will begin with an exploration of a speech delivered by former President Ronald Reagan following the end of his Governorship in California on August 19th, 1976 at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. In this speech, Reagan talks of the difficulty he found in writing a letter for a time capsule to be sealed in Los Angeles and opened one hundred years in the future. The video essay Future Perfect: Time Capsules in Reagan Country revisits this historical moment, as well as Reagan’s future imaginaries – his science fiction imagination and rhetoric – through visits to Reagan-inspired monuments and time capsules throughout California.
The conversation at Slought will then move from the New Right imaginary of Reagan’s era, which sought to impose a conservative vision upon society, to the AfroFuturist imaginary of Black speculative fiction writers today, who seek to enable a more progressive vision for society. In their recent collection Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (2015), editors Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha introduce the term visionary fiction to distinguish “science fiction that has relevance toward building new, freer worlds from the mainstream strain of science fiction, which most often reinforces dominant narratives of power.” The event will thus explore the power of language in envisioning better worlds, and the relationship between language, identity, imagination and power. The evening will conclude with a short writing workshop led by Rasheedah Phillips and The AfroFuturist Affair.

comma talk with Ras & Eighteen
2016-01-20 18:30 - 20:30 | The Physick House, 321 S 4th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Ras, Eighteen, maybe Alex too, will be on hand at this week’s Comma Talk:
Curated & hosted by Maryan Captan, comma talk is a discussion-based and audience interactive reading series featuring Philadelphia’s emerging writers and poets. With a goal of exploring and discussing creative process, themes, and techniques used in the featured writers’ work, Comma Talk is about connecting the writing to the writer.

THE LASER LIFE SPRING EDITION
2016-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 | LAVA zone, 4134 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
**what is this is**
**queer sci-fi reading**
The LASER LIFE series of readings is designed to expose the quantumly quantative, psycho-spiritual, panoramic truth of the speculative, to make real the shaman’s holler, the mystic’s clamour, the soothsayer’s griot-speak– all that was falsely remembered as unreal. Laser Life is a tour beyond the stilted cis-hetero-white-male gaze of normative “science fiction” that plagues the shelves of your local bookstore and Goodreads “to read” lists. It is hoped that Laser Life does not serve as tokenistic or anomalous within the ranks of science fiction, but that the inclusion of our marginalized voices be viewed as not only empowering, necessary or revolutionary, but as intrinsic.
Laser Life is everything, and everything in its place: the nook of all that is possible for us to view: the whole of the universe.

Featuring:
Metropolarity
Joyce Hatton
Chaska
Asli Dukan
Flier by Oskar Castro

Soft Targets: Vulnerability and Violence in the New Post-Apocalypse
2016-03-12 11:00 - 17:00 | Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central Location, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Join Metropolarity, APIARY Magazine, and the Free Library of Philadelphia for an afternoon of writers’ workshops and readings. This year, Metropolarity and APIARY Magazine have joined forces to produce a sci-fi themed issue exploring the nature of vulnerability in our present realities of mass incarceration, mass surveillance, social media, and the potential for revolution. This event is part of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s local iteration of the national 7 Days of Genius Festival #thatsgenius
11:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. One-on-one writers’ coaching with Apiary Magazine. Bring your own writing, and you’ll receive feedback. First come first served. (Grand Lobby)
1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. SOFT TARGETS: Science Fiction as memoir in a reality of apocalypse. A workshop with the writers from Metropolarity about living under capitalism/militarism and using that as inspiration for writing (Room 108).
3:30 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. Reading and Q & A with Metropolarity and friends (Montgomery Auditorium).
RSVP with these Free Tickets or on Facebook.

SPACE-TIME COLLAPSE TOUR W/AFROFUTURIST AFFAIR x BLACK QUANTUM FUTURISM COLLECTIVE
2016-04-01 10:00 - 2016-04-19 17:00
Readings, lectures, and panels on temporality, quantum futurism, speculation, displacement, future visioning
APRIL 1: TRANS/TEMPORALITY CONFERENCE @ THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
APRIL 2: JUSTICE + SPACE PANEL @ PENN DESIGN PHILA
APRIL 3: FREE BLACK WOMEN’S LIBRARY @ MOCADA MUSEUM NYC
APRIL 7: THEN AND NOW PANEL @ ARDEN THEATER PHILA
APRIL 17: RE-PRESENT-ING PANEL @ WOODEN SHOE BOOKS PHILA
APRIL 19: STOCKPOT LAUNCH @ STOCKTON UNIVERSITY NEW JERUSE

#diytimetravel at @universityoftoronto @penndesign @mocada_museum @ardentheatreco @thewoodenshoebooks @stocktonuniversity #afrofuturism #blackquantumfuturism #blackwomenwriters

Re-Present-Ing: Freedom, Fiction, & Science by Humans
2016-04-17 03:00 - 18:00 | Wooden Shoe Books & Records, 704 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, United States
Sirius JuJu
David Xu Borgonjon
Rasheedah Phillips
Laboria Cuboniks
Anthony Monteiro
PANEL/QnA
from the SOTHIS platform for the advancement of intelligent life-forms:
Present (noun) “this period of time, not the past or the future; now”
Re- (prefix) “used with the meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition, or with the meaning “back” or “backward” to indicate withdrawal or backward motion”
Present (verb) “to give, show, provide, or make known”
-Ing (suffix) “Art is not a be-ing, but a Being, the simple noun. It is not the verb, but its product.” -Leroi Jones
$5-20 no one turned away

STREET THEORY RETURNS: OPEN ACCESS SOCIAL CRITICISM OPEN MIC NIGHT
2016-05-01 16:00 - 19:00
COMMUNITY POTLUCK & OPEN ACCESS SOCIAL CRITICISM OPEN MIC NIGHT
DETAILS TBA
THE LAST ONE:
Metropolarity presents a night of community building and sharing. We seek social criticism from the community–performance art, blog rants, monologues, critical sci-fi, thesis excerpts, protest songs–whatever. As long as it explores and dissects the world we live in today. We want to find out what our community feels about social issues. We don’t want theories handed down to us from the ivory tower.
We want your real life STREET THEORY.
A MEDITATION:
“DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEFORE YOU UNDERSTOOD HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN ACADEMIA? DO YOU REMEMBER HOW TO SPEAK IN COMMON? DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU HEARD A NARRATIVE THAT DID NOT ALSO PROVE AN ARGUMENT? REMEMBER LIFE OUTSIDE THE IVORY TOWER. REMEMBER THE REST OF THE WORLD.“

THE RETURN OF FLY LIFE / QUEER HOUSE MUSIC HOUSE PARTY
2016-05-21 22:00 | THE LOCATION, 5026 OSAGE Ave, Philadelphia, PA, United States
We have the tea
We have the lemonade
We shall serve
(soon we will bring it to the *real* Paris and watch IT burn)
Sofistifunk meets Chrome City! FLY LIFE!
AURA! JOHN MORRISON! ALEX! DUIJI 13! ICON EBONY FIERCE! We here ya’ll!!
**this is an lgbtq function. no misogyny or homophobia tolerated, queer love and expression celebrated**
