Call for Papers: Special Issue of North Meridian Review, “Black Imagination(s) and Futurity.”
Image: Alabama artist and Afrofuturist Sun Ra.
Call For Proposals:
For the special edition titled, Black Imagination(s) and Futurity we ask for abstracts that seeks works that imagine Black possibility and futurity. This edition calls for texts focused on a radical Black future that could include emancipation and radical fugitivity in the present. Robin D.G. Kelley theorizes a Black Radical Imagination in Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination and asks, “What kinds of futures are they/we imagining and creating together?” (xxix). This series is an attempt to answer that question. We think of Black imagination as a site of possibility and a space to cultivate new visions of freedom. Through abolition, collective care, and political and social disruption, the Black imagination creates a new world. Scholars have long done the work of reimagining the future and examining Black life for spaces and acts of radical resistance and transformation. Moten and Harney’s “undercommons,” Hartman’s ‘beautiful experiments,” and Sharpe’s “wake work,” to name a few, are all imagining and creating new ways of being and knowing both in the past and in the future.
The Black imagination is not disconnected from the world but grounded deeply in the radical possibilities made possible by Black living and loving. Black Imagination(s) seeks abstracts across a variety of interdisciplinary fields, including but not limited to, Black/African American Studies, English, Disability Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Queer Studies, and Writing and Rhetorical Studies. We highly encourage independent scholars, activists, and organizers to submit.
We also especially welcome texts that push the boundaries of the scholarly form and experiment with genre.
The abstract should include the name of the project and the medium;
The abstract should be between 200–250 words and also include a short bio (100–120 words).
Submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Proposals should be created in Word – this can be standard Microsoft Word .doc or .docx. Manuscripts, Style, and Images.
Please make consistent use of a style guide, as well as spelling conventions (e.g., British vs. American English), throughout the essay using Chicago style guides with footnotes.
The contributors will include practitioners and scholars who participated in or witnessed the performance.
Tentative Contributors:
Regina Duthely-Barbee, Ph.D. University of Puget Sound
Victor L.E. Givens, M.F.A. Independent Artist
Anwar Uhuru, Ph.D. Wayne State University
Ricky Weaver, M.F.A. University of Michigan
Andrew I. Wilson, M.F.A. Independent Artist
Marsae L. Mitchell, Ph.D. Candidate Northwestern University
This CFP is interested in articles that explore, but are not limited to:
The body in aesthetic works and its relation to Black imagination and Futurity.
Performance, Corporeality and Imaginative Futures
Queer, intersex, and trans Imagination Futures
Wayfinding and Black imaginative futures
Ecologies and Imaginative Futures
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: December 15, 2025
Deadline for the submission of manuscripts: 30 April 2026
Email abstracts to: a.uhuru@wayne.edu ; wrbishop@jsu.edu
About the Guest Editor:
Anwar Uhuru is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Philosophy at Wayne State University. Their work is primarily concerned with a/effects of social power regarding gender, class, sexuality, and ableism and how it intersects with state-based violence due to social hierarchy. Their research interests include Black Existentialism, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Queer of Color Critique, Black Intellectual Thought, and Aesthetics. Co-editor with Myron M. Beasley Corporeal Migration and Performance for the Journal Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. They have publications in the Journal of Hip Hop Studies, The Journal of Philosophy and Global Affairs, APA Studies, Journal of World Philosophy, Philosophy Compass, and Radical Philosophy Review. Their forthcoming book, The Insurrectionist Case for Reparations: Race, Value and Ethics, will be published through SUNY Press.