A public presentation of the Center for Afrofuturist Studies’ artist-in-residence Sonya Dyer and her think tank the …And Beyond Institute for Future Research’s project HAILING FREQUENCIES OPEN.

Taken from the phrase most associated with Star Trek’s ‘Nyota Uhura’ (Nichelle Nichols), HFO reimagines the history and potentiality of human Space travel through three interconnected points – Nichols’ pioneering work diversifying NASA’s astronaut pool in the 1970s, HeLa cells taken from the body of Henrietta Lacks (the first human materials sent into Space), and the Greek myth of Andromeda.

The audience were invited to view work produced during the residency, and explore the notion of Dark Fecundity, a phrase the artist uses to describe the supposedly uncontrollable reproductive qualities attributed to the Black female body, as exemplified by the immortality of HeLa cells.

What happens when we recognise Dark Fecundity as a source of power?

CENTER FOR AFROFUTURIST STUDIES is sponsored, in part, by Black Art Futures Fund, a fund with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and Legacies for Iowa: A University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art Collections-Sharing Project, Supported by the Matthew Bucksbaum Family.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/33580