Black artists of the avantgarde have always defined the future.Blackspace On the Poetics of an Afrofutureampnbspis the culmination of six years of multidisciplinary research by trans poet and curator Anas Duplan about the aesthetic strategies used by experimental artists of color since the 1960s to pursue liberatory possibility. Through a series of lyric essays interviews with contemporary artists and writers of color and ekphrastic poetry Duplan deconstructs how creative people frame their relationships to the word liberation. With a focus on creatives who use digital media and languageastechnologyluminaries like Actress Juliana Huxtable Lawrence Andrews Tony Cokes Sondra Perry and Nathaniel MackeyDuplan offers three lenses for thinking about liberation the personal the social and the existential. Arguing that true freedom is impossible without considering all three the book culminates with a personal essay meditating on the authors own journey of gender transition while writing the book.