there are black femmes in outer space is an ongoing project that explores varying renditions of Black femme Afrofuturist visuality. This project was inspired by Black radical feminist notions of futurity and motivation to revise and expand the existing catalog of imagery of the Black Body. Tina Campt, Author and Modern Culture and Media Professor at Brown University, outlines in her book, Listening to Images, the grammar of black feminist futurity: it is a “grammar of possibility that moves beyond a simple definition of what will be.” This is a grammatical tense of the future real conditional, for “that which will have had to happen.” It references the future as an imperative and inevitable reality in which Black femmes must begin to live now. Because we have been consistently denied futures, the idea of possibility for us can only exist when it is immediately realized, as the system doesn’t recognize it as a legitimate prospect for us. These images are about living the future now as a negation of the notions of linear progress, which only seek to maintain an oppressive status quo. Each shoot is entirely produced and executed by Black femmes with interests in styling, producing, modeling, hair, makeup, and other expressions of creativity. The final product is the result of a collaborative effort, visually depicting a collective notion of what it looks like to live in the future now.
Shot by: Dori A. Walker
Creative Direction: Dori A. Walker, Jacyn Tate Daniels
Executive Producer: Jacyn Tate Daniels
Models: Jacyn Tate Daniels