METROPOLARITY

Future Perfect: A screening & workshop exploring future imaginaries from the New Right to the AfroFuturist Affair
2015-11-03 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | 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**

Trans Women of Color Collective's ASCENSION: a concert in the park celebrating Black trans & gender nonconforming artists
2016-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Thomas Paine Plaza, 1401 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA, United States
PHILADELPHIA THIS FRIDAY
Ascension
A concert in the park, celebrating Black trans and gender nonconforming artists in conjunction with the 2016 Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.
This is an outdoor, free event. No RSVP required. Friday, June 10 6:00 pm-8:00 pm at Thomas Paine Plaza (1401 John F. Kennedy Boulevard).

Curated by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and co-hosted by Cyree Jarelle Johnson (ACG ’13), Ascension features Lucas Charlie Rose, Venus Selenite, Sidney Chase, Marco Munroe, Jordan Hope Miller, Nila Nokizaru, and Kavi Ade.
Click here for Facebook event page.
IF YOU GOT COIN BRING IT CAUSE THERE’S SOME REALLY HOT FIRE WRITERS GOING TO BE THERE WITH NEW RELEASES FOR YOUR LIBRARY / POETRY FICTION CRITICAL PROSE AND LIVE PERFORMANCE
http://www.twocc.us/

Deep Space Mind: Insanity for Survival at the Allied Media Conference 2016
2016-06-17 04:00 - 17:30 | Detroit
DETROIT / ALLIED MEDIA CONFERENCE 2016
Space has often been used as a metaphor for uncharted, yet-to-be colonized territory. Similarly the mindspaces of marginalized persons are at risk of being infiltrated, surveilled, and used by colonizing forces. In this workshop we will use a DIY sci-fi lens for marginalized persons to explore and reclaim their own insane mindspaces while developing strategies for psychological survival in our age of warfare.
Presented by Ras Mashramani.
Friday June 17, 2016 4:00pm – 5:30pm
State Hall: Room 113
Hands-on Session

Track RAD Care Beyond Social Justice
Hashtag #DeepSpaceMind

Community Futures Lab Opening Reception
2016-06-18 17:00 - 19:00 | Community Futures Lab, 2204 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
Black Quantum Futurism/ The AfroFuturist Affair celebrate the opening of our new space COMMUNITY FUTURES LAB!
Over the next year, Black Quantum Futurism will be building and enacting a quantum time capsule, exploring oral histories/futures, preservation, displacement, and alternative temporalities within the North Philadelphia community known as Sharswood/Blumberg. “Community Futurisms” will document the redevelopment of Sharswood/Blumberg, through a multidisciplinary community art project that explores the intersections of futurism, literature, visual remixing, sound, and activism as art.
Join us on June 18, 2016 as we open the COMMUNITY FUTURES LAB, which will function as a resource library, community studio and gallery, workshop space, story recording booth, thinktank, experimental space and more.
ALL AGES
Light refreshments
Soundscapes + Projections by BQF
konja sound by Sirius JuJu
reading by Moor Mother
fly life sounds by Alexoteric
When: June 18, 2016
Time: 5-7pm
Where: CFL, 2204 Ridge Ave, Phila PA 19121
Ages: All
If you can’t make it out to the reception, please contact us at communityfutureslab@gmail.com to find out other ways to support or get involved and be sure to follow us on Facebook for updates!! We are also seeking to gather stories from current and former residents of Sharswood and surrounding community, so please spread the word!
Community Futurisms supported in part by A Blade of Grass
http://www.abladeofgrass.org/fellow/black-quantum-futurism/

ROCKERS!
2016-06-26 20:00 | TBA
+ IT ALL STARTED JUST LIKE THIS
AT SQUARE ONE + BECAUSE YOU HAD TO
++++++ ROCKERS / + JUNE 26 / + SUNDAY
MIGHTY PARADOCS (return of faye)
+
EX BY V
+
INTERMINABLE
+
SPECIAL GUEST TBA
+
HOSTED BY ST. SKRIBBLY LACROIX
+
DJ/SOUNDS BY MOOR MOTHER + ESTIA
MORE INFO TBA
@ROCKERS ON FB FOR QUESTIONS

Kimya Dawson // Moor Mother // METROPOLARITY // Daphne
2016-07-03 20:00 - 23:00 | 319 Performance Space, 319 N. 11th Street, 3rd Fl, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
“Hey everyone look at the SWEET lineup!!!!!!!!”
//Kimya Dawson//
Award-winning American singer–songwriter Kimya Dawson has seven solo albums to her name, as well as a number of releases with her other projects, including The Moldy Peaches, The Bundles, The Uncluded and Antsy Pants. Dawson has also collaborated with a long list of artists including The Mountain Goats, Aesop Rock, Ben Kweller and Regina Spektor. She is also widely known for her contributions to the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack for the film Juno (2007). Her songs are a blend of lo-fi pop and scrappy anti-folk, with Rolling Stone magazine describing her as ‘straddl[ing] the line between precious and profound’.
https://www.facebook.com/officialkimyadawson/
//Moor Mother//
MMGZ music is a history lesson, a future lesson, and a comment on the present all at once. And really it is more than a lesson, its a soundscape to these different time dimensions, so that you are hearing and experiencing not only music, but you get the voices of the ancestors, the whispers of our descendants, and the field sounds of the future and past landscapes. She presents an immersive experience in her music that unfolds or unearths some of the hidden dimensions that are embedded in sounds.
http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/
https://moormothergoddess.bandcamp.com/
//METROPOLARITY//
METROPOLARITY WAS BORN IN THE PIXELATED SUMMER OF 2012, DESPERATE FOR A SPACE WHERE TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY COULD INTERSECT. WE ARE DIY POSTCOLONIAL SCI-FI – A COLLECTIVE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION WRITERS EDUCATORS ARTISTS DREAMERS NETWORKERS AND DOERS BORN N RAISED N BASED IN PHILADELPHIA. WE ARE A TRANSTEMPORALSPATIAL NEIGHBORHOOD WE ARE CITY WE ARE LOW INCOME WORKING CLASS WORKING ALWAYS WORKING SURVIVORS MOTHERS PROFESSIONALS NON-ACADEMICS HASHTAG QUEER HASHTAG NONBINARY HASHTAG QTPOC WALKING WAKING PORTALS OF THE AFRICAN CARIBBEAN MESTIZA EUROPEAN DIASPORAS. WE WIELD “SCIENCE FICTION” VOICE AND WORD TO MANIFEST WORLD-PARADIGMS NECESSARY FOR OUR SURVIVAL. WE ARE ETERNAL SERPENT WE ARE CROSSSROADS / DESTROYERS RESURRECTORS. WALK WITH US.
http://metropolarity.net/
//Daphne//
+maybe more to come!!!
Door at 7:30 // Performances at 8, $15 cover
ALL AGES
21+ beer for donations
319 Performance Space (aka AUX @Vox Populi)
319 N. 11th St. 3rd floor
Philadelphia PA
**accessible by 3 steps to elevator-help will be provided for those who need it!**
**AIR CONDITIONED**
Artwork by Inés Estrada of www.gatosaurio.com! Support independent artists!

Apiary x METROPOLARITY Soft Targets Launch Party
2016-07-09 19:00 | Painted Bride ArtsCenter, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
all danger all softness no geolocation
1 nite revelry spells and sanctuary
texts songs dances
against the gathering data storm

this portal exists when we begin
this portal ends at midnight

APIARY MAGAZINE x METROPOLARITY
:
SOFT TARGETS
issue 8 of APIARY in collabo with sci-fi collective METROPOLARITY.
read philadelphia’s visions of vulnerability, violence and ecstasy;
survival strategies in our contested city;
the monstrous and tender contending inside us

7 PM: PARTING OF TIME AND SPACE // AIRPLANE MODE

enter.
drinks (government ID checked at door)
new names (memorywipe your government ID)
anti-surveillance face & body art

8-10 PM INCANTATIONS FOR INVISIBILITY

readings by 25+ storyspinners and poets
frequency lifting by the URBAN SHAMANS word/sounds/power:afrobeat funk jazz

10-MIDNIGHT DANCE PARTY
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ FEATURING ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
⚡ Anti-facial recognition face painting and body art by Kitakiya Davis
♪ Live musical performance by Philly’s URBAN SHAMANS: afrobeat funk jazz grooves, WORDS, SOUNDS, and POWER!
♪ DJ wizardry by Alex Smith (of METROPOLARITY)

MIDNIGHT-??? AFTERPARTY @ SILK CITY

may the ephemeral gather strength and carry us through the night

PAY WHAT YOU CAN: $7-10 SUGGESTED DONATION

⊙ Casita De Las Olas ⊙
2016-08-13 18:00 - 22:00 | The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
A VERY FINE EVENT FROM OUR NEIGHBOR, GENESIS MARTINEZ-CRESPO Y MARCELLINE MANDEG
IN WHAT WAYS HAS NOSTALGIA HINDERED OUR PERSONAL GROWTH? HOW DOES ONE BUILD A HOME OUT OF CONSTANT THEMES OF WHO THEY USED TO BE? WHAT IF THERE ISN’T MUCH TO BE NOSTALGIC ABOUT? BECAUSE AT NO TIME IN THE RECENT PAST YOU, YOUR PARENTS OR YOUR PARENT’S PARENTS WEREN’T IN A STATE OF DISPLACEMENT. IF YOU COULD ONLY PIN-POINT WHEN AND WHERE ITS EVEN POSSIBLE TO BREAK THE CYCLE.
⊙ Casita De Las Olas ⊙
1) DRAWING BASED INSTALLATION AT 40TH STREET AIR GALLERY.
+
2) AN ACCOMPANYING COLLABORATIVE PERFORMANCE WITH MARCELLINE MANDENG (http://mandengarchives.tk/) AT THE ROTUNDA AT 8PM
GALLERY DATES ⊙ ALSO OPEN TO APPOINTMENTS (GENCRESPO@GMAIL.COM)
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17TH 6-9PM
FRIDAY AUGUST 26TH 4-7PM
FIRST FRIDAY SEPT 2ND 6PM-9PM
SATURDAY SEPT 10TH 2PM-5PM
CLOSING SEPT 16TH -HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH KICKOFF FEAST
ACCESSIBILITY INFO: THE ROTUNDA IS WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE ALONG WITH AN ADA COMPLIANT RESTROOM. 40TH STREET HAS 5 STAIRS TO THE ENTRANCE AND 2 SMALL STEPS TO THE GALLERY, HAS A COMMON HOUSEHOLD-LIKE RESTROOM. BOTH VENUES HAVE SEATING.
SEPTA: CLOSEST TO 40TH ST MARKET-FRANKFORD LINE STOP. 40 BUS, 30 BUS AND A FEW BLOCKS FROM THE 40TH ST PORTAL.

Sharswood Community Clean-up Day
2016-08-20 09:00 - 14:00 | Community Futures Lab, 2204 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
Join the Ridge Avenue Block Captain, Community Futures Lab and Sharswood (North Philly) residents, neighbors, and business owners for a community clean-up day! Brooms, bags, and other supplies will be provided, as well as refreshments. Come anytime between the hours of 9am and 1pm, and bring a friend!
Date: Saturday, August 20
Time: 9am-2pm
Meeting place: 2224 Ridge Ave, a few doors down from Community Futures Lab
Contact: Stephanie Hardy, Block Captain – shardy01@temple.edu or (267) 595-1488

The Free Black Women's Library at Community Futures Lab - Community & Memory Theme
2016-08-27 13:00 - 17:00 | Community Futures Lab, 2204 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
The Free Black Women’s Library comes to Community Futures Lab!
The Free Black Women’s Library is a Brooklyn-based interactive mobile library that features over 420 books written by and about Black women. The library centers and celebrates the art, music, history and stories of Black women and girls worldwide. All books are available via trade. http://thefreeblackwomanslibrary.tumblr.com/
Please feel free to bring a good book written by a Black women to donate or trade.
1pm – Library Opens
3pm – Join us for a discussion on themes of Community and Memory in Black women’s literature.
3:45pm – Parables AfroFeminist Sermon delivery by Ola Ronke
4:30pm – Open Mic – bring a short piece of any genre to share
FREE
ALL AGES
ACCESSIBLE
LIGHT SNACKS
The Free Black Women’s Library at CFL is part of the weekend-long Rockers Bbq Weekend #6 2016 with performances to follow at 6pm ($5 admission):
https://www.facebook.com/events/664370080395117/

ROCKERS BBQ WEEKEND #6
2016-08-27 13:00 - 2016-08-28 16:00 | Community Futures Lab, 2204 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
ROCKERS BBQ WEEKEND WILL TAKE PLACE
AUG 27TH & 28TH 2016
WE CELEBRATE OUR 6TH YEAR DOING THE FESTIVAL!!
I CAN NOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR SUPPORTING ROCKERS OVER THE YEARS IT HAS BEEN A BLESSING TO PROVIDE SO MANY WITH A PLATFORM TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES.ROCKERS MONTHLY SHOWS MAY BE OVER BUT WE WILL CONTINUE EVERY YEAR WITH THE BBQ WEEKEND!!! THIS IS A WEEKEND FOR RECONNECTING, GIVING THANKS AND HAVING FUN. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE,
—————………..……………………..…………———-
DAY 1 AUGUST 27TH
2PM – 5PM BLACK WOMANS LIBRARY EVENT
READING BY RAS
Community Futures Lab
7PM RBW6 SHOW @yungcandystore

URSULA
https://www.facebook.com/ripursula/?fref=ts
ANDRE ALTREZ
https://www.facebook.com/andrealtrez/?fref=ts
PINKWASH
https://pinkwash.bandcamp.com/
THROWDOWN SYNDICATE (DC)
https://www.facebook.com/Throwdown-Syndicate-299281278982/?fref=ts
WHAT NERVE
https://www.facebook.com/whatnerve/?fref=ts
IRREVERSAL ENTANGLEMENTS
https://www.facebook.com/Irreversible-Entanglements-1222309981135873/
DJ MADAM DATA
https://www.facebook.com/madamdata/?fref=ts
AFTERPARTY Sofistifunk!!!
————–……………………………….-————————
DAY 2 AUGUEST 28TH BBQ – BBQ – BBQ
3PM -4PM COLLECTIVE ZINE MAKING WORKSHOP @communityfutureslab
SHOW & BBQ 4;20 – 8PM @communityfutureslab
RASHEEDAH PHILLIPS
https://www.facebook.com/AfroFuturistAffair/?fref=ts
JOHN MORRISON
https://www.facebook.com/JohnTheLiberator/?fref=ts
Distant//Damage
(Form space chumpy)
MIGHTY PARADOCS
https://www.facebook.com/Mighty-Paradocs-115554085164785/?fref=ts
SWARM
https://www.facebook.com/swarm.philly/?fref=ts
DJ MR. MANIC
https://www.facebook.com/mistermanic?fref=ts
—————………..……..———–…….……………………..…….
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN VENDING OR HELPING OUT WITH THE RBW6 WEEKEND PLEASE
EMAIL SDFSBOOKING@GMAIL.COML

TOMORROW NEVER HAPPENS
2016-08-30 12:00 - 2016-12-04 17:00 | Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor, Elaine Langone Center, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, United States
FIND METROPOLARITY PRINT ARTIFACTS AMONG THIS STACKED EXHIBIT AT BUCKNELL U’S SAMEK ART MUSEUM:::::::
Aug. 30 – Dec. 4, 2016
Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor Elaine Langone Center, Bucknell University
This exhibition explores queer futurity and the aesthetics of utopia by asking: How are queer communities imagining and working toward a better world? And how do queer theories, artistic practices, and lived experiences influence broader cultural thinking about the future?
Related Events:

Tomorrow Never Happens Semester Launch Party
Friday, September 16, 7pm
Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor Elaine Langone Center
Join us to celebrate Tomorrow Never Happens and the beginning of a new semester. Featuring spoken word, drag, and hip hop performances.
Field Trip: Hermitage and Mahantongo Heritage Center
Saturday, October 1, 10am-3:30pm
Departs from Elaine Langone Center
In connection to Tomorrow Never Happens and its focus on the concept of a queer utopia, we will be visiting this one-of-a-kind queer utopian experiment right here in Central PA. Information on how to sign up will be available soon on our website. Includes bus travel and lunch at Penn’s Tavern is on your own.

Tomorrow Never Happens Curatorial Talk
Wednesday, October 12, 6pm
Gallery Theater, Elaine Langone Center
Samek Director, Richard Rinehart will be in conversation with Bucknell Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Nikki Young. Introductions by Associate Provost Robert Midkiff. A post-talk performance by Cornelius Loy will take place in the Samek Gallery.
G.E.T. Fall Gala
Friday, November 4, 5:30-7:00pm
Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor Elaine Langone Center
The Samek’s student organization, the Gallery Engagement Team, is throwing its fall gala at the Samek in celebration of Tomorrow Never Happens. This event is for students, by students.

HIGH TIDE GALLERY (SMALL) SMALL PRESS FAIR
2016-09-03 12:00 - 2016-09-04 17:00 | High Tide Gallery, 1850 N. Hope St., Apt 14a, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, United States
METROPOLARITY TO TABLE & READ @ THIS PHILADELPHIA FOCUSED SMALL PRESS / MULTIPLES / ART OBJECTS / READING & PERFORMANCE / ZINE FAIR
(Small) Small Press Fair @ High Tide
September 3 & 4
12noon – 6pm
FREE ADMISSION
Featuring Vendors:
3dot Zine
Art Vandelay
Brickman Pubs
Fume Room
High Tide
Jessica Hans & Leah Horowitz
Metropolarity
Pomegranate Press
Ulises
Poster designed by Joel Evey

TRANS & GENDER NONCONFORMING YOUTH WRITING WORKSHOP SERIES
2016-09-10 12:00 - 2017-04-08 14:00 | Kelly Writer’s House, 3805 Locust Walk , Philadelphia, PA, 19139, United States
Kelly Writers House invites you to join a new
Writing Group for Trans
& Gender Non-Conforming Youth
This monthly writing group is open and free of charge for youth ages 14–22 who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming (GNC). The group will meet monthly at Kelly Writers House on the University of Pennsylvania campus on the second Saturday of the month, 12:00–2:00pm. No experience or expertise in writing is expected. Trans and GNC-identified guest writers will lead the group each month, and trans and GNC-identified facilitators will attend and support all monthly sessions. Lunch will be provided, as well as SEPTA tokens for transportation to and from the group. Come join us!

September 10 – Andrew Spiers, Kalen McLean and Hazel Edwards, facilitators
Come meet and start writing with the three trans and GNC-identified people who will facilitate the writing group and help establish ground rules and brainstorm topics participants want to write about. Andrew Spiers is a trans/queer writer, musician, and radical social worker. Kalen McLean works at the Mazzoni Center and helps facilitate a support group for young trans and GNC youth. Hazel Edwards is an artist, trans activist, and member of the Justice League at the Attic’s Bryson Center.

October 8, 2016 – Guest Writer Kavi Ade
Kavindu “Kavi” Ade is a writer, activist, arts educator, and nationally recognized spoken word poet. While best known for their gender identity poem titled “IT,” Kavi’s work most often bridges the realms of personal and political identity – navigating what it means to be Black, Transgender, Queer, and first-generation American all at once. Through their poetry the world unfolds itself in moments of cruelty, rage, and grief, but also beauty, wonder, and becoming.

November 12, 2016 – Guest Writers Mel Bentley and Leah B.
Mel Bentley co-organizes Housework at Chapterhouse, a reading series in Center City. They have two chapbooks published from 89plus/Luma Foundation and Lamehouse Press. Leah B. (Ksenya Leah Basarab) creates experimental musical fragments and prose/narrative/essay-form written works. Her musical pieces are an energized form of communication that involves sharing a myriad of emotions, memories, and opinions via varying vocalizations, a bass guitar, timing effects/layers, sometimes a piano, and more rarely a cello.

December 10, 2016 – Guest Writer M Eighteen Téllez

A founding member of the METROPOLARITY sci-fi collective, Eighteen is a hybrid mestiza cyborg and Philadelphia native who is frustrated/pissed with institutional distinction, empire and white supremacy, and fixed rather than fluid treatment of language and identity. They consider the spoken and written word handy and inexpensive tools for deconstructing oppressive world-ordering narratives.

January 14, 2017 – Guest Writer Cyree Jarelle Johnson
Cyree Jarelle Johnson is a Black non-binary essayist and poet living and working in Philadelphia. 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 in the anthology Poems for the Queer Revolution.

February 11, 2017 – Guest Writer Trish Salah
Trish Salah is a Lebanese/Irish-Canadian feminist writer and educator whose writing addresses trans themes as well as questions of diasporic Arab identity, anti-racism, queer politics and economic and social justice. Her first volume of poetry, Wanting in Arabic, published in 2002 then reissued, won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction in 2014. Roof Books published her second book, Lyric Sexology Vol. 1, in 2014.

March 11, 2017 – Guest Writer Davy Knittle
Davy Knittle is a poet whose chapbooks include empathy for cars / force of july (horse less press) and cyclorama (the operating system). He is a PhD candidate in English at Penn, where he thinks about what cities and poetry have to say to each other, and how poetry might help cities make room for everyone who lives in them.

April 8, 2017 – End-of-year party and chapbook launch
We will have an end-of-year celebration at Kelly Writers House where the youth can share their writing with friends and family.

Sessions will take place at Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, except on October 8 and March 11, when the writing group will be held at the LGBT Center at Penn, 3907 Spruce Street. Questions? Please contact Amy Hillier at ahillier@upenn.edu or Andrew Spiers at andrewspiersmss@gmail.com or Rachel Zolf at zolfr@writing.upenn.edu. Funding for the writing group is provided by Kelly Writers House and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice.

Tomorrow Never Happens Semester Launch Party
2016-09-16 19:00 - 22:00 | Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor, Elaine Langone Center, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, United States
COME GET YOUR SPECULATIVE VISION STRONG WITH ALEX & EIGHTEEN, READING AT THE LAUNCH JAWN 4 YOU~
Tomorrow Never Happens Semester Launch Party
Friday, September 16, 7pm
Samek Gallery, 3rd Floor Elaine Langone Center
This exhibition explores queer futurity and the aesthetics of utopia.
From marriage equality, to “bathroom bills,” to the massacre in Orlando, queerness is central to current social and political life. Current events can mire us in an unrelenting present that makes it hard to imagine a path beyond.
A rising chorus of artists is asking where do we go from here? How do queer communities imagine and work toward a better world? And how do queer theories, artistic practices, and lived experiences influence broader cultural thinking about the future?
The artworks in this exhibition represent a diverse range of sexes and sexualities, gender identities and expressions, national origins, and aesthetic sensibilities. Each work speaks with its own voice and they point down many possible paths to queer futurity. In some works, sexuality and sexual imagery are exposed as politics. Some works invoke collective strength and a sense of shared destiny. And others code utopian messages into history, mythology, and culture. Together, they suggest that our best hope may be to queer the future.
Join us to celebrate Tomorrow Never Happens and the beginning of a new semester. Featuring hip hop, drag, and spoken word performances from
Abdu Ali, Lil Miss Hot Mess, as well as Maggie Eighteen and Alex Smith of Metropolarity.

RIPExpo 2016 - Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo!
2016-09-24 12:00 - 2016-09-25 17:00 | Providence Public Library, 150 Empire St, Providence, RI, 02903, United States
METROPOLARITY LOVES RIPEXPO.
CATCH RAS & EIGHTEEN THIS YEAR TABLING W/NEW
POSTERS
PINS
#DIYSCIFI BOOKS
+ TEEEEEE SHIRTS
^___^/
About
The Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo (RIPExpo) is a spring weekend devoted to small-press and self-published comics, zines and books. Artists and writers from all over North America will join local creators to exhibit work and generate discussion. RIPExpo is committed to giving voice to those underrepresented in mainstream media.
The RIPExpo main exhibition halls at the Providence Public Library will have over 120 exhibitors selling their small-press and self-published comics, zines and books. Running during the show will be panel discussions with creators and publishers, and in the evenings there will be various events throughout Providence.
Free & open to the public!
Date
September 24 – 25, 2016
Location
Providence Public Library
225 Washington St
Providence, RI
02903

ICA Philly Free For All w/ Black Quantum Futurism
2016-09-28 18:30 - 21:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, 118 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
RUMOR HAS IT METROPOLARITY WILL BE IN THE BUILDING WITH BLACK QUANTUM FUTURISM AS PART OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART’S FREE FOR ALL PROGRAM SERIES
CONFIRMED DETAILS FORTHCOMING

JINXED Science Fiction Reading
2017-04-27 18:30 - 21:00
👽A science-fiction reading at Jinxed West Philly location featuring @metropolarity co-founders Alex Smith and M Eighteen Téllez, as well as Sarah Sawyers-Lovett and Moose Lane!

LASER LIFE presents Style of Attack
2017-05-10 19:00 - 22:00 | Vox Populi, 319 N. 11th St, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
</^> laser life queer sci-fi reading </^>
***this is the psycho-social, queer liberatory, autonomous, afro-curatorial, queer propulsed pulse, electro light light beam, sigil sub-conscious, navigatory cosmic trance dance on the techno-veldt… this is STYLE OF ATTACK***
METROPOLARITY is a DIY sci-fi collective based, bred, and tested in the colliding future-present of Philadelphia. STYLE OF ATTACK Report contains select work from Metropolarity’s four founding members, who contribute theory, practice, and experience of home grown speculative visioning for both historical documentation as well as personal and collective survival. The collection serves as a model and a record of how Black, brown, queer, low-resource, working, ill and in-recovery people can project themselves into the future, conjuring resources, technology, and magic that aid us in the present.
Also this sci-fi is FIRE cuz the crew don’t play.
Laser Life is a queer sci-fi reading documenting the release of STYLE OF ATTACK and a celebration of the book being nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, the highest honor in LGBT letters.
purchase and peruse the book here:
http://metropolarity.bigcartel.com/product/style-of-attack-report
Come here the futurist voices of:
Ras Mashramani
Maggie Eighteen
Rasheedah Phillips
Camae Ayewa
Alex Smith
+ special guests TBA
http://metropolarity.net/
**flyer by Oskar Castro http://www.bohitifotuto.com/

MOOGFEST
2017-05-18 10:00 - 2017-05-21 17:00
May 18—21 Durham, NC
Catch our workshops & reading events alongside Black Quantum Futurism collective as part of this year’s ‘Future Thought’ programming at MOOGFEST in Durham. It’s $$$ tho so don’t stress – we do our thing regularly around the city of Philadelphia.
Moogfest is the synthesis of music, art and technology.
Since 2004, Moogfest has brought together artists, futurist thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, scientists, and musicians.
By day, Moogfest is a platform for conversation and experimentation. This mind-expanding conference attracts creative and technology enthusiasts for three days of participatory programming in Durham, North Carolina. By night, Moogfest presents cutting-edge music in venues throughout the city. Performing artists include early pioneers in electronic music, alongside pop and avant garde experimentalists of today.
Moogfest is a tribute to Dr. Robert Moog and the profound influence his inventions have had on how we hear the world. Over the last sixty years, Bob Moog and Moog Music have pioneered the analog synthesizer and other technology tools for artists. This exchange between engineer and musician is celebrated with a unique festival format where the creative process is understood as a collaboration among many people, across time and space, in commerce and culture.

2017 Lambda Literary Awards
2017-06-12 19:00 - 22:00
YOUR LOCAL SCI-FI SQUAD IS NOMINATED FOR A LAMMY IN SCI-FI/FANTASY/HORROR. CROSS YR FINGERS! WE’RE ROLLING DEEP TO THE AWARD CEREMONY.
ABOUT THE LAMMYS
The Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) identify and celebrate the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the year and affirm that LGBTQ stories are part of the literature of the world. The Lammys, which receive national and international media attention, bring together 600 attendees—including nominees, celebrities, sponsors, and publishing executives—to celebrate excellence in LGBTQ publishing. It is the most prestigious and glamorous LGBTQ literary event in the world.
The Guardian newspaper said: “… Steeped as they are in celebrity and ceremony, the Lammys aren’t as stuffy or straight as many LGBT awards shows often are: they were unabashedly, gleefully queer, representing the many facets of queer life.”
Honoring
Jacqueline Woodson with the Visionary Award
Jeanette Winterson with the Trustee Award
With special introductions by Cynthia Nixon & AM Homes
Hosted by Mx Justin Vivian Bond
Stellar roster of presenters include
Heather Acs · Frank Bruni · Ana Castillo · Betty Dodson
NYC Councilman Daniel Dromm · Masha Gessen · Keelay Gipson
JP Howard · Cleve Jones · Saeed Jones · Taylor Mac · Eileen Myles
Tig Notaro · Carl Phillips · Ariel Schrag · Meredith Talusan
Vivek Tiwary · Jes Tom · Mitchell Waters · Karen Williams
Other surprise guests to be announced in May
The awards ceremony is directed by Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Join us at the most glamorous LGBT literary event in the country. Over 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities will come together to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature. Read the full press release here.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
5:30 pm Red Carpet and VIP Cocktail Reception
7:00 pm Awards Ceremony
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 LaGuardia Place
New York City
9:30 pm After Party
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York City
