Museum looks to the future with Black Kirby exhibit
The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts kicked off the 33rd annual Zora! Festival with the opening of “Afrofuturism in the Visual Realm.”
The exhibition features the work of Black Kirby, an artist duo that takes the work of comic book artist Jack Kirby, who co-created characters like the X-Men and the Hulk, and combines it with Afrofuturism, struggles for social justice and hip-hop.
The exhibit will be on display for one year, coinciding with the newly expanded Zora! Festival.
Curator and Zora! Festival academic committee member Julian Chambliss said moving from a one-month calendar to a year-round calendar will allow people to sit longer with the ideas the festival explores.
“The goal of this festival cycle is exploration of the meaning of Afrofuturism,” he said.
University of California at Riverside professor John Jennings, one half of Black Kirby, explained that Afrofuturism is a response to the lack of representation of Black people in science fiction.
“If you look at 1950’s sci-fi … you don’t see people of color in the future,” he said. “And that’s really problematic, like, what happened to us?”
Stacey Robinson, Jennings’ collaborator and assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said that as Black Kirby, he and Jennings create the types of comics they wanted to see growing up.
The comics displayed in the exhibit combine Jack Kirby’s characters with Black historical figures and Black culture.
“Gil Scott Free” combines Gil Scott, who Jennings described as “one of the most amazing spoken word artists to ever live,” with Scott Free, a superhero from the DC universe who is a master escape artist.
Robinson said the piece, along with its companion “Jill Scott Free,” looks at the idea of the Black escape, or the freedom from oppressive systems.
“You have this husband and wife, who
are speaking backward and forward into time to free each other,” he said. “Because we are not free in the future without each other.”
Robinson said Black Kirby isn’t just about making Jack Kirby superheroes Black. The artwork they create asks questions.
Jennings said they played around with the idea of who can become a superhero.
“Do you think that a Black person is qualified to save you from a burning building?” he asked. “Or will you run from them and clutch your purse?”
Jack Kirby’s “The Thing” from the Fantastic Four is transformed into Black Kirby’s “The Black Thing.” A speech bubble from the character reads “ARRRGHH! I’M A MUTHA-EFFIN’ MONSTER!”
Zora! Festival academic committee member Trent Tomengo said he thinks the message of the piece is to embrace the labels others try to use against you.
“It’s constructed in a way where the message, at least from my standpoint, seems to be from Black culture’s perspective,” he said. “You think we’re monsters, right? Well, we’re gonna embrace that concept.”
Tomengo said when people look at these works, there’s a chance they could change the way they think about themselves and the world around them, which could lead to a change in their actions.
“So, this is where the reality of the future idea comes in,” he said. “If you don’t change the way you act, you won’t change what happens to you in the future, or what could happen to you in the future.”
Chambliss said being able to see yourself in representations of the future is transformative.
“The idea that if you see a future where you are included,” he said. “The mechanisms around achieving that future becomes something that you can, you can start to imagine.”
If you go
The exhibit, “Afrofuturism in the Visual Realm,” is on display at Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, 344 E. Kennedy Blvd. in Eatonville. Admission is free.