This is from an associate, Prof. Yumy Odom of The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. And btw, Eric is a great artist and a really great guy!
GREETINGS!
FYI
ERIC BATTLE ( BATMAN / SPECTRE) IS SCHEDULED TO DO A SIGNING AT FAT JACK'S COMIC CRYPT ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2006 FROM 4P.M. - 6P.M.
FAT JACK'S IS LOCATED AT 20TH & SANSOM STS. IN CENTER CITY PHILADELPHIA - 215.963.0788.
19 October 2006
29 September 2006
Music Video premiere!!!
So I've got a little side project. Back in the summer, I directed a music video for the musical artist, Tamar-kali. Check it out on my MySpace page: Invisible Universe Check out her website: Tamar-kali the song is entitled, Boot. Really enjoyed working on the project with T, having been a fan of hers since 1996.
Ca: Tamar-kali, Tia Horn. Pr/Dir: M. Asli Dukan, DP: Yvie Raij, PD: Mark Gebel, MU: Angelique Turner, Gaf: Michael Britto, Yamar Ba, CA: Reyna Abarca, W: Imani Horn, PA: Doreen and Tia Horn, Zack Gebel, Marya Wethers, Ph: Scott Smith, Ed: Mike Mason
Ca: Tamar-kali, Tia Horn. Pr/Dir: M. Asli Dukan, DP: Yvie Raij, PD: Mark Gebel, MU: Angelique Turner, Gaf: Michael Britto, Yamar Ba, CA: Reyna Abarca, W: Imani Horn, PA: Doreen and Tia Horn, Zack Gebel, Marya Wethers, Ph: Scott Smith, Ed: Mike Mason
01 September 2006
30 August 2006
Sci Fi Soul Night at Imagenation Film and Music Festival
This past 24 August 2006, I curated the Sci Fi Soul Night for the Imagenation folk. Screened two films, a short entitled "Dread Night Folk" by Erik Knight and a feature entitled "Les Saignantes" (The Bloodettes) by Jean-Pierre Bekolo. Well the first film, was a short that I had seen in graduate school in 1998. 
It's a tale of an old dying man named Honus, who with the aid of a young boy named Rono, tries to escape from Death on the cold night on the streets of New York. Its a mix of magic realism amd african diaspora folklore. I was really impressed with its subtlely, creativity, imagination and energy. There is a stop motion segment where a dance is created with jars and buttlerflies. This is one of the first times where I felt there could be such a thing as a Black SF film, without it going over the top, but with just enough culture to really feel it. The other time I felt that was with Ganja & Hess, the vampiric film by Bill Gunn. The other film, the feature, Les Saignantes, left me without a lot of different emotions and thoughts. First of all, I had not seen the film before the screening but the directors of the festival were insistent on screening it because the distributor, Kay Shaw could come to speak about it. I must say that if she were not there, I really would not have gotten half of the ideas of the film as she explained them. The film takes place in the future, 2025 Cameroon in a society where prostitution is still a way of life and political and social upper classes and wannabes attend funerals like people go to film premieres as a sign of social nobility. So the first few minutes is like a soft porn sex video, where a young naked woman hangs from a strap above an old naked man. She pounces and twirls and hovers above him in a sexual manner. We get good glimpses of how bottomless the womans costume is while oddly enough the old man is covered. Anyway this prostitute has this important client die on her and then somehow with her friend and fellow prostitute loses the body of the dead man. This apparently is a very bad thing for them as they are kind of social climbers too, so then they go to a creepy mortician who replaces the body with another, so that they may do their social mourning with the other socialites. Then there is this evilish government official whose passion is the smell of women's worn underwear, who becomes the antogonist of the two prostitutes who at some point after the bodyless torso and funeral decide to change their lives around, by quitting prostitution? I'm not really sure about that part. Then there is the climatic choreographed and very laughable fight scene between the government official and the women, and they defeat him because get this they have as a young boy in the audience so aptly yelled, "Mommy they have powers!" so if this quasi-review does not make sense, its because its exactly how i felt watching the film. And all of this was supposed to be SF. Maybe I'll watch it again and take another shot at reviewing it.
It's a tale of an old dying man named Honus, who with the aid of a young boy named Rono, tries to escape from Death on the cold night on the streets of New York. Its a mix of magic realism amd african diaspora folklore. I was really impressed with its subtlely, creativity, imagination and energy. There is a stop motion segment where a dance is created with jars and buttlerflies. This is one of the first times where I felt there could be such a thing as a Black SF film, without it going over the top, but with just enough culture to really feel it. The other time I felt that was with Ganja & Hess, the vampiric film by Bill Gunn. The other film, the feature, Les Saignantes, left me without a lot of different emotions and thoughts. First of all, I had not seen the film before the screening but the directors of the festival were insistent on screening it because the distributor, Kay Shaw could come to speak about it. I must say that if she were not there, I really would not have gotten half of the ideas of the film as she explained them. The film takes place in the future, 2025 Cameroon in a society where prostitution is still a way of life and political and social upper classes and wannabes attend funerals like people go to film premieres as a sign of social nobility. So the first few minutes is like a soft porn sex video, where a young naked woman hangs from a strap above an old naked man. She pounces and twirls and hovers above him in a sexual manner. We get good glimpses of how bottomless the womans costume is while oddly enough the old man is covered. Anyway this prostitute has this important client die on her and then somehow with her friend and fellow prostitute loses the body of the dead man. This apparently is a very bad thing for them as they are kind of social climbers too, so then they go to a creepy mortician who replaces the body with another, so that they may do their social mourning with the other socialites. Then there is this evilish government official whose passion is the smell of women's worn underwear, who becomes the antogonist of the two prostitutes who at some point after the bodyless torso and funeral decide to change their lives around, by quitting prostitution? I'm not really sure about that part. Then there is the climatic choreographed and very laughable fight scene between the government official and the women, and they defeat him because get this they have as a young boy in the audience so aptly yelled, "Mommy they have powers!" so if this quasi-review does not make sense, its because its exactly how i felt watching the film. And all of this was supposed to be SF. Maybe I'll watch it again and take another shot at reviewing it.
23 June 2006
Big Apple Con
On Saturday, 24 June 2006 I will be a guest on a Black SciFi Panel hosted by Black comic book historian Professor William Foster along with Sheree Renee Thomas of the Dark Matter Anthologies and Maurice Waters of BlackSciFi.com and the East Coast Black Age of Comics.
27 February 2006
Octavia E. Butler 1947-2006
I just received word today that Octavia Butler died. I have so many emotions about it that it is hard to separate and explain them all right now. I read Octavia's work when I was in high school and she really opened up the doors of possibility in my mind. Her work was challenging (for my teenage brain and emotions) but at the same time she made it possible for me to see myself in a genre that I never literally saw myself in as a major character. She definitely inspired me to do what I do now. I thank her for that. I feel lucky that I have even had the opportunity to tell her this, more than once. The first time she smirked and changed the subject. The second time she laughed. But the third time, very recently at an award ceremony in her honor in New York City, she responded that I made her feel old, if I read her work while I was in high school. We had a good laugh together that time. That is one of my fondest memories of the woman, a titan in the world of writing in general but SF writing in particular. There are those who have recognized her talent and her intelligence before she passed, but in my opinion not nearly enough. She was and forever will be truly one of the greatest.
31 January 2006
IUFSFC 2006!!!
IUF Holds Its First Annual Conference 2006
Exploring African American Speculative Fiction
New York, NY. ---- (IUF) The Invisible Universe Foundation, an organization that researches and promotes the history of African Americans in speculative fiction literature, cinema and related media will hold its first annual conference during Black history month on February 18, 2006 at The City College of New York. The Invisible Universe Foundation is a first of its kind conference examining a broad variety of works in African American fantasy, horror and science fiction or speculative fiction.
The conference theme will be devoted to "Black Vampirism in Literature and Film,” The special guest is L.A. Banks, a prominent African American writer of “The Vampire Huntress Legends Series” and author of over 17 novels. Admission to the IUF conference is twenty-five dollars. It will be held from 1pm to 6pm in the Media and Communication Arts Department, rooms 290/291 at 139 Street and Convent Avenue.
Ms. Dukan, founder of the IUF asserts “other events have been held around the country featuring black speculative fiction authors and filmmakers, but what differentiates the IUF conference is that we bring together cinema, literature, animation, comics and video games to an open channel of communication.”
With an increase in popularity of Black roles in speculative fiction movies and books from Catwoman and X-Men featuring Halle Berry, to Wesley Snipes’ “Blade trilogy” and as well as the work of Octavia Butler, the event is geared to generate an exciting atmosphere that will bring together a variety of creative minds discussing African American portrayals in speculative fiction. The panel will include filmmaker Mike Sargent, Professors Frances Gateward and Kara Lynch and others in the field.
The conference keynote speaker, Ms. Dukan, a graduate from CUNY with a Master’s Degree in media and communication arts will also screen a 15 minute segment from her documentary work-in-progress “Invisible Universe: a history of blackness in speculative fiction.” This event will include a raffle drawing with collector’s prizes and an entertaining closing reception.
The Invisible Universe Foundation was founded in November of 2005 in New York City.
For further information please contact Ms. Asli Dukan, Executive Director at E-mail: info@invisibleuniversedoc.com and visit the website http://www.invisibleuniversedoc.com.
Exploring African American Speculative Fiction
New York, NY. ---- (IUF) The Invisible Universe Foundation, an organization that researches and promotes the history of African Americans in speculative fiction literature, cinema and related media will hold its first annual conference during Black history month on February 18, 2006 at The City College of New York. The Invisible Universe Foundation is a first of its kind conference examining a broad variety of works in African American fantasy, horror and science fiction or speculative fiction.
The conference theme will be devoted to "Black Vampirism in Literature and Film,” The special guest is L.A. Banks, a prominent African American writer of “The Vampire Huntress Legends Series” and author of over 17 novels. Admission to the IUF conference is twenty-five dollars. It will be held from 1pm to 6pm in the Media and Communication Arts Department, rooms 290/291 at 139 Street and Convent Avenue.
Ms. Dukan, founder of the IUF asserts “other events have been held around the country featuring black speculative fiction authors and filmmakers, but what differentiates the IUF conference is that we bring together cinema, literature, animation, comics and video games to an open channel of communication.”
With an increase in popularity of Black roles in speculative fiction movies and books from Catwoman and X-Men featuring Halle Berry, to Wesley Snipes’ “Blade trilogy” and as well as the work of Octavia Butler, the event is geared to generate an exciting atmosphere that will bring together a variety of creative minds discussing African American portrayals in speculative fiction. The panel will include filmmaker Mike Sargent, Professors Frances Gateward and Kara Lynch and others in the field.
The conference keynote speaker, Ms. Dukan, a graduate from CUNY with a Master’s Degree in media and communication arts will also screen a 15 minute segment from her documentary work-in-progress “Invisible Universe: a history of blackness in speculative fiction.” This event will include a raffle drawing with collector’s prizes and an entertaining closing reception.
The Invisible Universe Foundation was founded in November of 2005 in New York City.
For further information please contact Ms. Asli Dukan, Executive Director at E-mail: info@invisibleuniversedoc.com and visit the website http://www.invisibleuniversedoc.com.
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