6:00 - 7:00
In Arch Angels of Funk (Macmillon, 2024), Cinnamon Jones is a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer living in the Massachusetts of my mind in an alternate present or near future after Water Wars have scrambled the world. As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges. Her Circus-Bots, and dogs (one cyber-enhanced) are part of a community of Motor Fairies, Wheel-Wizards, and Co-Ops trying to hold on to who they’ve been while coming up with the next world.
Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and scholar. Her works include, Will Do Magic For Small Change (Aqueduct Press, 2016), a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award; and Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays. Her play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. Andrea received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2011 and has gotten grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Master of Poisons (Tordotcom, 2020) and is on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020. “Seven Generations Algorithm,” a short story is in Trouble the Waters edited by Sheree Renee Thomas and Pan Morigan. And Redwood and Wildfire, (Aqueduct Press, 2011), winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre.
The Sistah Scifi series celebrates the rich Afrofuturism and Afrofantasy genres, showcasing the remarkable works of Black women authors in the fast-paced world of speculative literature. Sistah Scifi is the first Black owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States.