Afrofuturist Haunts: Trade In European Lore For Festivals Of The Ancestors

This Halloween, venture off into places and experiences that are different from pumpkin carvings, cobwebs, and the ghost stories that derive from European lore. Trade that in to learn about the drumbeats, starlight, stories, and the language of the ancestors.

Afrofuturist haunts invites you into portals where Black imagination isn’t just surviving the dark, it’s reshaping it. The haunted places below are living archives of memory and possibility that merge folklore with science fiction and ritual with technology. These experiences include immersive art experiences, festivals, and destinations that come alive with ancestral energy and where the past and future converge.

Afrofuturist Haunts Through Exhibitions

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room At The Met In New York City

This immersive installation has roots in the homes of Seneca Village in the nineteenth century. The predominantly Black American community was comprised of fifty homes, three churches, a school, cemeteries, and gardens.  It was a safe community for Black people in this village just west of The Met. They flourished before the city used eminent domain and destroyed them in the mid-1800s to build Central Park.

Inside The Met is the exhibition, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.” Curators say it is inspired by Virginia Hamilton’s retellings of the Flying African tale, which celebrates the imagination of enslaved peoples, their creative uses of flight, and the significance of spirituality and mysticism to Black communities in the midst of great uncertainty.

The exhibition explores what Seneca Village might have become if it had not been erased. Artists blend historical artifacts, art, décor, and speculative design to straddle past, present, and future. The exhibition creates a space that evokes both loss and alternative futures.

Futures Of Repair In New York City

The artists behind “Futures of Repair” invite people to explore the future made possible by a dream of reparations. Set in the year 2165, the space features interactive installations and sound sculptures. This social dream space sits at the intersection of art, imagination, nightlife, and community.

Participants will look through the lens of six integral relationships that have been fractured by the harms of colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy. The six relationships are self, community, social structures, the land, the Cosmos, and our lineages. There are also mediation and healing spaces while the exhibition is open through March 10, 2026.  

Women Of Afrofuturism In San Francisco

There’s no better way to explore Afrofuturism than through music. Black musicians have imparted Afrofuturist themes into their music for decades. As curators inside the San Francisco Museum point out, experimental jazz musician Sun Ra pioneered the genre through his music, persona, album cover artwork, and futuristic costumes in the 1950s and ’60s.

By the 1970s, women changed the game. Legendary jazz musician Alice Coltrane explored universal consciousness. Then, simultaneously, Labelle created a new look with their cosmic costumes. The women would become the first all-Black female group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1975.

The new generation has artists such as Janelle Monáe, musician Moor Mother, and avant-garde flutist Nicole Mitchell who continue to define the genre.

San Francisco Museum’s “Women of Afrofuturism” exhibition celebrates the women of Afrofuturism who continually imagine inclusive, joyful, and luminous futures for Black people while simultaneously addressing present issues and past injustices.

Festivals For Afrofuturist Haunts

AfroFuture In Multiple Cities

Every year, the organizers of the AfroFuture festivals are at the forefront of putting together a global celebration of the diverse culture and work of the diaspora through festivals, live performances, immersive activities, and community engagement.

Organizers are on a mission to connect the global diaspora and build a new AfroFuture. The AfroFuture platform offers various cultural experiences tailored for the modern global audience, encompassing fashion, art, music, and culture.

The team’s motto is: “We bring the world to Africa and take Africa to the world.”

Celebrations take place every year in Ghana, but the team has since expanded to other cities such as Detroit and Zanzibar.

BLK Future Fest In Riverside, California

The team at BLK Future Fest created the event to build a space where culture, creativity, and community can come together to unlock infinite possibilities. It’s a movement to inspire, equip, and elevate future leaders.

The fest is an interactive experience for students and families to build generational wealth, support vendors, and network. Workshops focus on entrepreneurship, hip hop pedagogy, the future of Black education, Black Wall Street, and more.

Houston AfriFest

Houston AfriFEST celebrates African music, foods, fashion, and the varied and diverse cultures that span the continent. From Senegal to Ethiopia, Egypt to South Africa, the people of Africa are proud to share their unique and diverse culture with the most diverse city in the United States.

Dive into the heart of African culture with exciting activities and opportunities to get involved. Whether you’re an artist, a volunteer, a partner, or a vendor, there’s a place for you at Houston AfriFEST.

Destinations To Explore Afrofuturist Haunts

Dakar Biennale in Dakar, Senegal

In Senegal, the Dakar Biennale is Africa’s premier and longest-running international biennale that is dedicated to showcasing contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora. It’s a lively and colorful event that takes place in Dakar every two years. The festival attracts contemporary artists from all over Africa. Fest-goers will see their works in galleries, including paintings, sculptures, performances, and other forms of art production.

Mashariki African Film Festival in Kigali, Rwanda

For a week straight, there are more than 80 hand-picked titles from across the continent and diaspora representing 25 countries at the Mashariki African Film Festival. The event takes place in Kigali and is Rwanda’s largest film festival. Festival organizers have featured Afrofuturism as a theme in the past to encourage young filmmakers to create new stories and present a new vision of Africa that is different from stereotypical portrayals of poverty.

Ouidah Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin

An official national holiday since 1996, Benin celebrates the Ouidah Voodoo Festival every year on January 10 to honor the Vodun religion. The event features sacred rituals, dances, and processions led by priests, with thousands of locals and tourists gathering in Ouidah to witness the ceremonies, including dances, animal sacrifices, and trance states. 

There’s a grand procession, which includes a walk to the “Door of No Return,” a memorial to the enslaved. The festival is considered a way to connect with ancestral spirits and heal from the legacy of the slave trade in what many believe to be the spiritual home of Voodoo.

The post Afrofuturist Haunts: Trade In European Lore For Festivals Of The Ancestors appeared first on Travel Noire.