Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics

<p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir= "auto">Presented on October 14, 2022 as part of the Social Science Matrix <a href= "https://matrix.berkeley.edu/category/event-type/authors-meet-critics/"> Authors Meet Critics</a> series, this panel focused on the book <a href= "https://nyupress.org/9781479824144/keeping-it-unreal/"><em>Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics</em></a> (NYU Press, 2022), by <a href= "https://nyupress.org/9781479824144/keeping-it-unreal/">Darieck Scott</a>, Professor of African American Studies at UC Berkeley.</span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir= "auto">Professor Scott was joined in conversation by <a href= "https://africam.berkeley.edu/people/ula-y-taylor/">Ula Taylor</a>, Professor & 1960 Chair of Undergraduate Education in the UC Berkeley Department of African-American Studies and African Diaspora; and <a href= "https://art.stanford.edu/people/scott-bukatman">Scott Bukatman</a>, Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Stanford University Department of Art & Art History.</span> <span class= "style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">The panel was moderated by <a href="https://www.gregniemeyer.com/">Greg Niemeyer</a>, Professor of Media Innovation, Toban Fellow, Director of the Art Practice Graduate Program at UC Berkeley.</span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">This event was co-sponsored by the <a href= "https://africam.berkeley.edu/">Department of African American Studies</a> and the <a href="http://bcnm.berkeley.edu/">Berkeley Center for New Media</a>.</span></p> <h3>About the Book</h3> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir= "auto">Characters like Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Miles Morales, and Black Lightning are part of a growing cohort of black superheroes on TV and in film. Though comic books are often derided as naïve and childish, these larger-than-life superheroes demonstrate how this genre can serve as the catalyst for engaging the Black radical imagination.</span