Agomoni Saha, Contributing Photographer

6th Dimension, an arts festival celebrating Afrofuturism, hosted its Into the Afroverse summit this Saturday.

The Into the Afroverse Summit was the seventh event held by 6th Dimension. The arts festival runs from Aug. 26 to Oct. 28 across New Haven and Hamden. The festival celebrates and introduces attendees to the concept of Afrofuturism.

The summit, hosted at NXTHVN from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., featured a variety of speakers and workshops, including four panels, a “Finding Your North Star” workshop, an “Exploring Afrofuturism Through Food” event, opening and closing keynotes and a social to wrap up the summit. There was also a vendors market that hosted seven Black-owned businesses, an exhibition called “Sara Woodfalk: Field Notes from the Emphathic Universe,” arcade games by Third Space, food trucks by Cool Runnings and Caribe Soul and free screen printed shirts by DeadBy5am. 

Juanita Sunday, organizer of the 6th Dimension festival, said she was excited to share Afrofuturism through an interdisciplinary mix of visual arts, music and other mediums. 

“Afrofuturism is an aesthetic, a practice that focuses on creating and centering Black experiences in our own universes. Part of Afrofuturism is looking at the past to analyze our present and make change for the future,” Sunday explained. “How can we start looking at our community and reimagining a new future?” 

Sunday invited Reynaldo Anderson and Ingrid LaFleur — internationally recognized thinkers in Afrofuturism — as the keynote speakers for the event. 

Sunday said she also wanted to incorporate speakers from New Haven, which she regards as the “arts center of Connecticut.” Among the New Haven-based panelists at the summit were Salwa Abdussabur, the executive director of Black Haven, a cultural nonprofit that aims to allow artists to use art as a tool for social change, and Babz Rawls Ivy, a local radio host.  

“With the summit, [I wanted people] to start thinking about how we’re using concepts of Afrofuturism in our artistic practice, in our organizing practices, and within our community,” Sunday said. “I hope that people take away an appreciation for Black art and Black culture and start thinking about ways that we can start reimagining our own communities.” 

Sandra Aya Enimil, the owner of Pretty Afrika Designs — a jewelry and accessory business she runs with her mother — was a vendor at the event. 

She said she enjoyed hearing broader conversations about envisioning the future of Black life, referencing a discussion on the lack of Black people represented in the future in film. 

Maya Lwazi Rose, an attendee of the summit, said they were also happy to be in an environment where they were surrounded by visually expressive, like-minded thinkers imagining the future. They said they also enjoyed the other attendees’ creativity and expression through personal styles and outfits.

“The keynote speaker … and people on the panels have been referencing history and also referencing what new technologies are coming about, what ideas are coming out,” Rose said. “We’re all in the same headspace, and that is a really special thing because you don’t have that everywhere you go.”

Whitney Lawson, another attendee at the summit, told the News that she was interested in checking out the “Exploring Afrofuturism Through Food” event as a form of sharing culture and stories and connecting members of a community.

Abdussabur, who runs Black Haven, was a panelist for the “Young, Black & Out of This World” panel where she discussed the importance of Afrofuturism in the future of the Black community, especially in New Haven. Black Haven aims to brings stories in Black history that are often unheard from the past into the present and the future, according to Abdussabur.

Abdussabur said that Afrofuturism is a “practice of thought and liberation” that allows her to see herself in the future “despite living in a society that is outwardly blatant about Black folks not living in the future.” 

She also said that the summit was a community where she could share her ideas and feel supported by those around her.

“In the [Building a Black Tomorrow] panel, I felt safe enough to ask ‘What does it mean to ask for help as a Black woman in leadership?’ because I am a Black woman in leadership and it can be hard to ask for help sometimes,” Abdussabbur said. 

6th Dimension wraps up with two more events in October: a “Dirty Computer” screening & dance party on Oct. 19 and “The Memory Librarian” book club social on Oct. 25.

Correction, Nov. 11: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that The Into the Afroverse Summit was the fourth of six events held by 6th Dimension. The Into the Afroverse Summit was the seventh event held by 6th Dimension.