2021 Nommo Awards Announced
The winners of the 2021 Nommo Awards have been announced at DisCon3, this years WorldCon.
The winner of the 2021 Ilube Nommo Award for Best Novel was THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI by Akwaeke Emezi. Best Comic or Graphic Novel was won by Akosua Hanson (writer) and AnimaxFYB Studios (illustration) for MOONGIRLS from Drama Queens Collective in Ghana.
https://moongirls.live/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CHAPTER-1.pdf
The short story award was an exact tie between Innocent Chizaram Ilo for RAT AND FINCH ARE FRIENDS (STRANGE HORIZONS and Tlotlo Tsamaase for BEHIND OUR IRISES (Brittle Paper, anthology AFRICANFUTURISM)
Read More Here: https://www.africansfs.com/about-nommos/2021-nommo-award-winners
MoonGirls nominated for 2021 Nommo Award
The long list is alphabetical order by authors’ names. All works are speculative fiction, published between January 1, 2019 – December 31 2020, and are thought to be by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines.
The nominees will be asked to confirm their eligibility and eligibility of their works in writing. Nominees will also be asked to make complete texts or excerpts available to ASFS Members only for purposes of informed voting.
PLEASE NOTE: The long lists consist of all titles in their respective categories that were nominated by members of the ASFS. Some of these works were nominated once. The ASFS lists them in full to draw attention to all the works members felt worthy of consideration.
Also this year, we listing those works nominated by members that are not eligible but are still noteworthy. For the first time this year we are listing the publishers of the works. The SHORT LIST of works for the 2021 Nommo Awards will be announced end of May. Voting for the winners of the Awards will start then.
See full nomination list here: africansfs.com
The MoonGirls Graphic Novel – Celebrating Herstories in a World That Seeks to Erase Them
In the year 2019 of the New World Order of the Council of the Seti, the current Moongirls are four African Supersheroes who fight a physical and philosophical war. Their mission: to restore Truth, Propriety, Order, Balance, Justice, and Harmony. Ma’at.
Little girls need to hear stories of their greatness and humanity in a patriarchal world that tells them otherwise. Women need to be reminded of their capabilities in a world where rape, for instance, is the weapon of a gender war.
Drama Queens Ghana is proud to present, “MoonGirls”, an Afrofuturistic graphic novel series. Through an Afrofuturistic lens, “MoonGirlsfollows the adventures of 4 African supersheroes with varying superpowers to save the world from a diverse range of forces; from patriarchy, rape culture to pollution and global warming.
Acknowledging the intersections between race, class, gender and historical context, this comic will feature supersheroes battling forces of all these for a better Africa. All issues will explore the notion of Black women’s persistence within a globalized, racialized and gendered contemporary world. MoonGirls will not be afraid to question harmful norms, it will not be afraid to offend and will frequently invite its readers to think more critically through the lens of:
- Afrofuturism;
- Comics as coded texts (eg. survival manuals, confessional space, cautionary tale, subversive, fantasy, experiment);
- Black bodies and representations of beauty in comics;
- Discussions of power, powers and superpowers;
- Conceptions of evil or villains in comics;
- Role of science and philosophy in comics;
- Conceptions of gods, goddess, religion, spirituality and the occult in comics;
- Comics as an unmediated, autonomous feminist space; and
- Notions of flaws in superheroes.
The superhero culture is a zeitgeist of our times. People project with their imaginations powerful beings who save or do not save, have extraordinary abilities and push intellectual thought to deeper levels of reasoning. In a way, the concept of supersheroes shows us how much more extraordinary we can be if we just let ourselves. Humans need to create super-beings to imagine our very own great possibilities and capabilities.
As a Pan-African feminist theatre group, Drama Queens strongly believes that in response to the existence of a system of patriarchy, women often have no choice but to be everyday supersheroes navigating a violent world that places them as a “lesser” gender of humans. This comic captures these great stories of everyday supersheroes from the lens of Afrofuturistic fiction while immortalizing them in feminist art.
The first issue of MoonGirls will be launched in December, with a 5-day exhibition from the 27th to the 29th at the Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art and the 3rd to 5th January 2020 at Basecamp Initiative.
MoonGirls was created by Akosua Hanson, with art by AnimaxFYB Studios with initial art by Kissiwaa, Julia Shika Odamtten, Hanson Akatti. The graphic novel was collaboratively written by Akosua Hanson, Suhaidatu Dramani, Abdul Rashid Tsiddi Can-Tamakloe and George Hanson. It is produced by Drama Queens.
Full Article: squidmag.ink
Stay Put, and Chill: Quarantine for the culture
Mutual aid, in the era of collaborative care and social distancing, transmutes the boundaries of proximity and presents love based action in real spacetime. For those of us who’ve replaced face-to-face time with increased screen time, the privilege of interconnectedness is a virtual life line for fellowship and community.
Though the fifth dimensional privilege that is Digital Connection remains inaccessible to the multitudes, due directly to the crumbling systems of greed and governance which we are working in real time to decompose, many of us are now alone; together. Our access to media and information is near unlimited, but our timelines and streams of information consumption is still limited to the algorithms that support *those* decomposing systems. “Western” beauty standards, propaganda and scare tactics, and fast-adapting marketing campaigns are viewed, clicked, and tolerated as screen time increases.
For this reason, WingedRoutes has compiled the below guide to help you make an adventure of quarantine by following emerging black and brown femmes, QTPOC and diaspora musicians and artist collectives, and creators that deserve visibility and support. This compendium encompasses Vibes, Looks, and Acts of black and brown femmes, them’s, and ‘nems from across the globe, who represent for the culture in word and deed.
Full Article: wingedroutes.com/
Moongirls: A graphic intervention
A dive into the world of four “African Supersheroes” via a conversation between People’s Stories project contributor, Moshood, and Moongirls speculative fiction series founder, Nana Akosua Hanson.
Afrofuturism in the Age of Black Panther
The term “Afrofuturism” was coined by critic Mark Dery in 1993 to describe the use in African American culture of science fiction tropes to explore the condition of black people in the world—and to imagine the destinies they could shape for themselves.
Why comics can make great history books
Recently, a skeptical colleague gleefully shared an American comedian’s scathing witticism that only a country that thinks comic books are important could have elected Donald Trump.