manifesto

black is the new black

by D. Scot Miller

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I’m not a surrealist. I just paint what I see. — Frida Kahlo

THE PAST AND THE PRELUDE

In his introduction to the classic novel Invisible Man
(1952), ambiguous black and literary icon Ralph Ellison
says the process of creation was “far more disjointed than
[it] sounds ... such was the inner-outer subjective-objec-
tive process, pied rind and surreal heart.”

Ellison’s allusion is to his book’s most perplexing charac-

ter, Rinehart the Runner, a dandy, pimp, numbers runner,
drug dealer, prophet, and preacher. The protagonist of
Invisible Man takes on the persona of Rinehart so that
“I may not see myself as others see me not.” Wearing
a mask of dark shades and large-brimmed hat, he is
warned by a man known as the fellow with the gun, “Lis-
ten Jack, don’t let nobody make you act like Rinehart.
You got to have a smooth tongue, a heartless heart, and
be ready to do anything.”

And Ellison’s lead man enters a world of prostitutes, hop-

heads, cops on the take, and masochistic parishioners.
He says of Rinehart, “He was years ahead of me, and
I was a fool. The world in which we live is fluidity, and
Rine the Rascal was at home.” The marquee of Rinehart’s
store-front church declares:

Behold the Invisible!

Thy will be done O Lord!

I See all, Know all, Tell all, Cure all.

You shall see the unknown wonders.

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 Ellison and Rinehart had seen it, but had no name for it. Afro-Surrealism is about the present. There is no need
for tomorrow’s-tongue speculation about the future.
In an introduction to prophet Henry Dumas’ 1974 book Concentration camps, bombed-out cities, famines, and
Ark Of Bones and Other Stories, Amiri Baraka puts forth enforced sterilization have already happened. To the
a term for what he describes as Dumas’ “skill at creating Afro-Surrealist, the Tasers are here. The Four Horsemen
an entirely different world organically connected to this rode through too long ago to recall. What is the future?
one ... the Black aesthetic in its actual contemporary and The future has been around so long it is now the past.
lived life.” The term he puts forth is Afro-Surreal Expres-
sionism. Afro-Surrealists expose this from a “future-past” called
RIGHT NOW.
Dumas had seen it. Baraka had named it.
RIGHT NOW, Barack Hussein Obama is America’s first
This is Afro-Surreal! black president.

THIS IS NOT AFRO-SURREAL RIGHT NOW, Afro-Surreal is the best description to the
A) Surrealism: reactions, the genuflections, the twists, and the unex-
Leopold Senghor, poet, first president of Senegal, and pected turns this “browning” of White-Straight-Male-
African Surrealist, made this distinction: “European Sur- Western-Civilization has produced.
realism is empirical. African Surrealism is mystical and
metaphorical.” Jean-Paul Sartre said that the art of Seng- THE PRESENT, OR RIGHT NOW
hor and the African Surrealist (or Negritude) movement San Francisco, the most liberal and artistic city in the na-
“is revolutionary because it is surrealist, but itself is sur- tion, has one of the nation’s most rapidly declining black
realist because it is black.” Afro-Surrealism sees that all urban populations. This is a sign of a greater illness that
“others” who create from their actual, lived experience is chasing out all artists, renegades, daredevils, and out-
are surrealist, per Frida Kahlo. The root for “Afro-” can casts. No black people means no black artists, and all
be found in “Afro-Asiatic”, meaning a shared language you yet-untouched freaks are next. Only freaky black art
between black, brown and Asian peoples of the world. — Afro-Surreal art — in the museums, galleries, concert
What was once called the “third world,” until the other venues, and streets of this (slightly) fair city can save us!
two collapsed.
San Francisco, the land of Afro-Surreal poet laureate Bob
B) Afro-Futurism: Kaufman, can be at the forefront in creating an emerging
Afro-Futurism is a diaspora intellectual and artistic move- aesthetic. In this land of buzzwords and catch phrases,
ment that turns to science, technology, and science fic- Afro-Surreal is necessary to transform how we see things
tion to speculate on black possibilities in the future. now, how we look at what happened then, and what we

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can expect to see in the future.

It’s no more coincidence that Kool Keith (as Dr. Octagon)

recorded the 1996 Afro-Surreal anthem “Blue Flowers”
on Hyde Street, or that Samuel R. Delany based much
of his 1974 Afro-Surreal urtext Dhalgren on experiences
in San Francisco.

An Afro-Surreal aesthetic addresses these lost legacies

and reclaims the souls of our cities, from Kehinde Wiley
painting the invisible men (and their invisible motives) in
NYC to Yinka Shonibare beheading 17th (and 21st) cen-
tury sexual tourists of Europe. From Nick Cave’s sound-
suits at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to the words you
are reading right now, the message is clear: San Francis-
co, the world is ready for an Afro-Surreal art movement.

Afro-Surrealism is drifting into contemporary culture on

a rowboat with no oars, entering the city to hunt down
clues for the cure to this ancient, incurable disease called
“western civilization.” Or, as Ishmael Reed states, “We
are mystical detectives about to make an arrest.”

A MANIFESTO OF AFRO-SURREAL
Behold the invisible! You shall see unknown wonders!

1. We have seen these unknown worlds emerging in the

works of Wifredo Lam, whose Afro-Cuban origins inspire
works that speak of old gods with new faces, and in the
works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who gives us new gods
with old faces. We have heard this world in the ebo-
horn of Roscoe Mitchell and the lyrics of DOOM. We’ve
read it through the words of Henry Dumas, Victor La-
valle, and Darius James. This emerging mosaic of radical

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Amiri Baraka
 influence ranges from Frantz Fanon to Jean Genet. Su- 5. Afro-Surrealists strive for rococo: the beautiful, the
pernatural undertones of Reed and Zora Neale Hurston sensuous, and the whimsical. We turn to Sun Ra, Toni
mix with the hardscrabble stylings of Chester Himes and Morrison, and Ghostface Killa. We look to Kehinde Wi-
William S. Burroughs. ley, whose observation about the black male body ap-
plies to all art and culture: “There is no objective image.
2. Afro-Surreal presupposes that beyond this visible And there is no way to objectively view the image itself.”
world, there is an invisible world striving to manifest, and
it is our job to uncover it. Like the African Surrealists, 6. The Afro-Surrealist life is fluid, filled with aliases and
Afro-Surrealists recognize that nature (including human census- defying classifications. It has no address or phone
nature) generates more surreal experiences than any number, no single discipline or calling. Afro-Surrealists
other process could hope to produce. are highly-paid short-term commodities (as opposed to
poorly-paid long term ones, a.k.a. slaves).
3. Afro-Surrealists restore the cult of the past. We revisit
old ways with new eyes. We appropriate 19th century Afro-Surrealists are ambiguous. “Am I black or white? Am
slavery symbols like Kara Walker, and 18th century colo- I straight, or gay? Controversy!”
nial ones like Yinka Shonibare. We re-introduce “mad-
ness” as visitations from the gods, and acknowledge the Afro-Surrealism rejects the quiet servitude that charac-
possibility of magic. We take up the obsessions of the terizes existing roles for African Americans, Asian Ameri-
ancients and kindle the dis-ease, clearing the murk of cans, Latinos, women and queer folk. Only through the
the collective unconsciousness as it manifests in these mixing, melding, and cross-conversion of these sup-
dreams called culture. posed classifications can there be hope for liberation.
Afro-Surrealism is intersexed, Afro-Asiatic, Afro-Cuban,
4. Afro-Surrealists use excess as the only legitimate mystic, silly, and profound.
means of subversion, and hybridization as a form of
disobedience. The collages of Romare Bearden and 7. The Afro-Surrealist wears a mask while reading Leo-
Wangechi Mutu, the prose of Reed, and the music of pold Senghor.
the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Antipop Consortium
express this overflow. 8. Ambiguous as Prince, black as Fanon, literary as Reed,
dandy as André Leon Tally, the Afro-Surrealist seeks defi-
Afro-Surrealists distort reality for emotional impact. 50 nition in the absurdity of a “post-racial” world.
Cent and his cold monotone and Walter Benjamin and
his chilly shock tactics can kiss our ass. Enough! We want 9. In fashion (John Galliano; Yohji Yamamoto) and the
to feel something! We want to weep on record. theater (Suzan Lori-Parks), Afro-Surreal excavates the

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 Advertise
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remnants of this post-apocalypse with dandified flair, a

AD RATES: B&W/Color
smooth tongue and a heartless heart. Full Page: $150/$200
Cover 2 or 3: $175/$250
10. Afro-Surrealists create sensuous gods to hunt down
beautiful collapsed icons.
Back Cover: $175/$250
Spread: $200/$350
AFRO-SURREALISM IN ACTION Center Spread: $250/$400
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum
of the African Diaspora present the works of Mutu, Wil-
liam Pope L., Trenton Doyle Hancock, Glenn Ligon, Wi- Ad-design service avail-
ley, Shonibare, and Walker en masse, with Lam’s Jungle able: $50
as a center piece. Lorraine Hansbury Theater stages
Genet’s The Blacks and Baraka’s The Dutchman, while
San Francisco Opera adapts Aimé Césaire’s Caliban and
the Fillmore has an Afro-punk retrospective. Afro-Surreal
Deadline: October 1
adaptations of Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo (1972), Hurston’s
Tell My Horse (1937), and Marvel’s Black Panther will Available: October 15
grace the silver-screen.

These are the first steps in an illustrious and fantastic PRINT SPECS
journey. When we finally reach those unknown shores, Average Print Run: 1,000
we will say, with blood beneath our nails and mud on Paid Subscriptions: 300
our boots: (13% are libraries)
Total Circulation: 950
This is Afro-Surreal!  Frequency: Tri-annual
8 1/2 X 11”
Distributors: PDG Group

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.