From The Wiz to Wakanda: Afrofuturism in Pop Culture
September 8, 2025
Meet VCU Authors: Grace Gipson
Start time: 12:00 p.m.
End time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Online via Zoom
Join us for a Meet VCU Authors talk with Grace Gipson, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and author of From The Wiz to Wakanda: Afrofuturism in Pop Culture.
Description
Freedom fighter. Activist. Singer. Builder. Time traveler. Disruptor. Iconic. Designer. Afrofuturism encompasses all of these descriptors that contribute to it being a multi-faceted identity. As an episodic series, From the Wiz to Wakanda: Afrofuturism in Pop Culture is taking listeners on a journey that shares varying ways to engage with how Afrofuturism continues to embody the above descriptors, center Black stories, while also culturally evolving within the pop culture landscape. For the purpose of this talk, Dr. Gipson will explore the blossoming relationship between Afrofuturism and pop culture as seen through literature, fashion, architecture, comics, film & television, and music.
About the Speakers
Grace Gipson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she teaches courses on theories and foundations in Africana Studies, Blackness in pop culture, and Black media narratives. As a proud HBCU graduate and Black future feminist/pop culture scholar, her research interests include Black pop culture, race and gender in comics, Afrofuturism, and digital humanities. Her current book project, “Reclaiming Her Time: Exploring Black Futures in the Black Female Superhero” (University Press of Mississippi), seeks to examine and chronicle the layered experiences of Black superheroine characters and Black creatives’ narratives and how their identities transcend from comic book fiction to reality. Outside the classroom, you can find Dr. Gipson collecting comic books and stamps on her international travel discoveries, ticket stubs to the latest movies, trying new food and drink spots, co-hosting the video podcast Conversations with Beloved and Kindred, contributing her personal and professional thoughts on pop culture via blackfuturefeminist.com and giving back to the community through a myriad of projects and organizations.