Wildseeds’ vision for the Black Sci-Fi and Literary Arts Festival is to showcase the amazing talent of artists and writers of color in New Orleans whose work engages around issues of race, gender, class, social change, and the future of communities of color. This festival seeks to be a place for marginalized groups to imagine ourselves in our own futures, which is what the best science fiction and speculative fiction allows us to do. Recently Wildseeds was part of an art installation at Exhibit BE. Our “Sacred Space” exhibit honored marginalized children and their families who have experienced displacement. Inspired by the community response to Sacred Space, Wildseeds seeks to use this festival as a way to inspire more group-led community art projects exploring the untold stories of New Orleans. We want to encourage art/writing that will explore the experiences and intersections of our lives as people of color, women, poor, immigrant, and LGBTQ community members, using science fiction, speculative fiction, and other artforms as a lens on our existence.

Open to the public, the 3-day festival will feature: hands-on workshops/skills-shares (such as comic book, zine, and graphic novel making, self-publishing, etc.); film screenings (featuring sci-fi/fantasy movies by directors of color); panel discussions; literary readings; and art and music by local artists and musicians. More than anything, the festival will provide a space to celebrate artists, writers, teachers, librarians, and readers engaged in shaping the future of communities of color at the intersection of art and social change.