Alien Rhythms: Sounding Black Futures from the Ocean Floor

The ships landed long ago: they already laid waste whole societies, abducted and genetically altered swathes of citizenry, imposed without surcease their values. Africa and America—and so by extension Europe and Asia—are already in their various ways Alien Nation. No return to normal is possible: what ‘normal’ is there to return to? Part of the story of black music (the affirmative, soul-gospel aspect) has always been this—that losing everything except basic dignity and decency is potentially a survivable disaster. The other part—as told so obliquely by Ra, Coltrane, Braxton, Delany, Ishmael Reed, and doubtless many others less easily seen than this—is that staying true to the best in yourself may mean when everything can so cunningly imitate everything else, talking in dark, crazed, visionary tongues for a season. Mark Sinker, “Loving the Alien,” 33.