In August of 2016 Tohu Magazine published Lama Suleiman's article Afrofuturism and Arabfuturism: Reflections of a Present-day Diasporic Reader.
The article received wide local and international distribution, as well as many responses. The upcoming conference continues the pioneering discourse opened in the article and expands it further. The speakers will present Afro- and Arabfuturistic arguments and will explore the relevance of ethno-futuristic thinking to art and culture in the Middle East.

Among the various talks in the conference, Reynaldo Anderson will speak about how Afrofuturistic thought has become, in an era of rising nationalism, a bed of critical thinking regarding racism, Eurocentrism, and exploitation. Yael Messer will present local art works that imagine the day after the completion of the Zionist project. Arrate Hidalgo will talk about "Speculative Queerness," or "How Science Fiction Ruined my Relationship with the Gender Binary."

Dr Reynaldo Anderson, Dark Speculative Futurity and the Rise of Neo-Nationalism

Mohammad Jabali, Aliens: Beyond Western Christendom

Arrate Hidalgo, Speculative Queerness: How Science Fiction Ruined my Relationship with the Gender Binary

Yael Messer, Between Nostalgic Utopia and Present Returns

Panel Discussion: Ethno-futurism in the Middle East - Critical Afterthoughts Dr Reynaldo Anderson, Thalia Hoffman (Artist, PhD candidate at the PhDArt program, The Netherlands), Muhammed Jabali Chair: Dr Nadeem Karkabi (Post-doctoral fellow, Martin Buber Society of Fellows; Anthropology and Cultural Studies lecturer, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Editorial Board Member, Tohu Magazine)

Program

Part 1

16:00 Reception

16:15 Dr Reynaldo Anderson (Harris-Stowe State University, co-editor of Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness, Lexington Books, 2016) 
Dark Speculative Futurity and the Rise of Neo-Nationalism Keynote lecture

17:00 Screening: Short films

17:30 Muhammad Jabali (Artist, writer, DJ; Bezalel Art Academy)
Aliens: Beyond Western Christendom

18:15 Arrate Hidalgo (Translator & Associate Editor, Aqueduct Press)
Speculative Queerness: How Science Fiction Ruined my Relationship with the Gender Binary

Part 2

19:20 Yael Messer (Curator, 48mm film festival at Zochrot, the Institute for Public Presence)
Between Nostalgic Utopia and Present Returns

20:00 Screening: Halil Altindere, Space Refugee, 2016
Introduction by Avi Lubin (Co-editor, Tohu Magazine)

20:30 Panel Discussion: Ethno-futurism in the Middle East - Critical Afterthoughts
Dr Reynaldo Anderson, Thalia Hoffman (Artist, PhD candidate at the PhDArt program, The Netherlands), Muhammed Jabali 
Chair: Dr Nadeem Karkabi (Post-doctoral fellow, Martin Buber Society of Fellows; Anthropology and Cultural Studies lecturer, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Editorial Board Member, Tohu Magazine)

21:30 Guy Dubious (Osherov) artist, Ph.D. candidate at Birmingham School of Art, UK
DJ Set: Space Poetry Volume One