Harlem hosts Afrofuturists for UN Summit of the Future

NEW YORK — The United Nations General Assembly reaches beyond its walls for Days of Action in the community, this year including the Summit of the Future. One artist is bringing the conversation around Afrofuturism home to Harlem.
It may not be Wakanda, but Harlem has long been at the forefront of forward-thinking creatives of color. Now the international stage is set at the Children’s Art Carnival for the UN’s Black Paper Chronicles series of events.
“That’s international, that’s planetary,” said graphic artist Tim Fielder, “and to be able to do that within the context of showing the venue that kids grow in, that’s the biggest thing.”
Fielder co-curated the coordinating “Quantum” exhibit with Dr. Reynaldo Anderson, featuring the future as seen in the imagination of Afrofuturists from around the world. Fielder was one of 40 to form the N Square-Horizon 2045 virtual think tank during the pandemic, tasked with taking on nuclear disarmament from a new perspective.
“We were thinking, well, before we resolve the nuclear disarmament issue, how about we deal with the kids getting killed with Skittles issue, you know, the police brutality,” Fielder said. “So those things we found out can work hand in hand.”
The resulting images explore opposing ideas.
“Part of the training featured what a utopia would look like, but what a dystopia would look like,” Fielder said, explaining the double image panels on the wall.
Fielder and fellow artists Dr. Stacey Robinson and Alan Saint Clark offer options for solutions from benign progressive policing to vertical farming that combats climate change, in a way that aims to engage younger generations in the conversation.
As the backdrop for panels organized by the Pan-African Women’s Association and the Global Minority Parliamentarians Caucus, the proposals resulting from the upcoming discussions may help shape policies providing a global impact.
The UN Summit of the Future events happen across multiple locations Friday and Saturday afternoon, including at Children’s Art Carnival on Hamilton Terrace. For more information on the Quantum exhibit, click here. For more information on the UN Summit of the Future programming, click here.
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