SAN­DRA L BLOOD

UK dig­i­tal art icon Vince Fras­er, known for his im­mer­sive vir­tu­al ex­pe­ri­ences show­cased in Lon­don, Dubai, Paris, and the Unit­ed States, will dig­i­tal­ly de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress to­day at the Gala Launch of The Black In­fi­nite: The Glob­al Rise of Afro-Fu­tur­ism Ex­hi­bi­tion & Sem­i­nar, part of The Sea­son of Anan­si Na­tion­al Folk­lore Fes­ti­val 2025.

The event will be host­ed from 6-9 pm at Cin­e­ma One IMAX, Port-of-Spain and will al­so fea­ture the pre­miere of an ex­clu­sive NFT trib­ute to Nipsey Hus­sle, cre­at­ed by his Trinida­di­an men­tor, Dex­ter Browne. The ex­hi­bi­tion and sem­i­nar are part of the wider Sea­son of Anan­si Folk­lore Fes­ti­val, now in its third year.

Man­ag­er Joy Luk-Pat said, “The fes­ti­val con­tin­ues to spark imag­i­na­tion with bold cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming that cel­e­brates the Caribbean’s deep-root­ed sto­ry­telling tra­di­tions. Fol­low­ing the suc­cess­ful Na­tion­al Book­store Tour and School Sto­ry­telling Tour held last month, the fes­ti­val now un­veils one of its most an­tic­i­pat­ed events.”

The Gala Launch of The Rise of Afro-Fu­tur­ism Ex­hi­bi­tion in­tro­duces a land­mark in­ter­na­tion­al mul­ti­me­dia show­case span­ning two floors and three weeks at Cin­e­ma One IMAX. It fea­tures dig­i­tal art, film, vir­tu­al in­stal­la­tions, and sculp­ture.

At its core is Afro-Fu­tur­ism – a genre that merges sci­ence fic­tion, fan­ta­sy, tech­nol­o­gy, and African di­as­poric his­to­ry, reimag­in­ing Black and Brown fu­tures through dy­nam­ic, stereo­type-free lens­es. The free-ad­mis­sion ex­hi­bi­tion is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 10 am to 6pm.

From Mar­vel’s Black Pan­ther and In­to the Spi­der-Verse to ground­break­ing se­ries like Love­craft Coun­try and Watch­men, Afro-Fu­tur­ism has rev­o­lu­tionised glob­al pop cul­ture. It em­pow­ers his­tor­i­cal­ly-mar­gin­alised voic­es, projects Black ex­cel­lence in­to spec­u­la­tive fu­tures, and cel­e­brates re­silience, re­sis­tance, and in­no­va­tion. This ex­hi­bi­tion ex­plores all that and more.

To­mor­row from 9- 11.30 am, Fras­er will lead a paid, on­line sem­i­nar for cre­atives and pro­fes­sion­als in­ter­est­ed in dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling, emerg­ing tech, AI, and the glob­al cre­ative econ­o­my.

The ex­hi­bi­tion al­so fea­tures works by T&T’s vi­sion­ary artists Jean ‘Nor­mal Nor­mal’ Benoit, James Hack­ett, Richard ‘Char­su’ Ahong, and sculp­tor Sher­win Ban­field, along­side trib­utes to Leroy Clarke and oth­er cul­tur­al leg­ends. It in­cludes con­tri­bu­tions from in­ter­na­tion­al Afro-Fu­tur­ist cre­atives such as Chuck Brown (Bit­ter Root), African fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phers, glob­al AI artists, and top in­ter­na­tion­al pub­li­ca­tions.

The week­end con­cludes with a glob­al Zoom pan­el on Sat­ur­day, fea­tur­ing in­ter­na­tion­al voic­es in Afro-Fu­tur­ist film, mu­sic, AI, and acad­e­mia.

Reg­u­lar Ex­hi­bi­tion Dates May 16 to June 7 (free ad­mis­sion).

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion: Call or What­sApp 797-0949 or vis­it. www.sea­sono­fanan­si.com.