The COVID-19 pandemic left a lot of in-person events and events labeled "superspreaders" (an event with typically having 50 or more people in an enclosed space for more than 15 minutes and no social distancing) in the dust. This prevented the Afrofuturism Lounge from being a physical event in 2020 and 2021. While a virtual event took their place, there is something to be said for the connection people can have when we're together in-person.

The Afrofuturism Lounge has always been a parallel event to the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC). SDCC is one of the largest comic conventions in the world! Dr.Richmond originally planned to hold an off-site afterparty during SDCC in 2018 for industry insiders, but later decided to open it to the public and had 700+ people registered to attend! The Afrofuturism Lounge has continued on since then and continues to grow every year with new guests and offers to the public.

Our parent organization, EDFU Foundation, is a proud sponsor of the Afrofuturism Lounge and our Afronauts podcast will be there in-person to give a live show!

Last year, Dr.Richmond separated the fan convention aspects of the Afrofuturism Lounge into its own convention. The first ever AfroCon was held at the YMCA in San Diego,CA during Labor Day weekend and welcomed over 300 guests!

AfroCon 2022 will be held September 3-4 at the same YMCA in San Diego, CA. Stay tuned for more information to come!

"Dr. LaWana" to Moderate Schomburg Center Afrofuturism and Black Feminism Discussion
San Diego, Calif. (March 21, 2022) -- LaWana Richmond EdD ("Dr. Lawana"),  founder of the Afro Con, Afrofuturism Lounge and The Black Speculative Arts Movement, San Diego Chapter, will moderate Black Women Organizing for theFuture, part of the Schomburg Center's Afrofuturism and Black Feminist Futures  series.

The virtual conversation will take place Thurs., March 24, from noon - 1:30 pm EDT. Panelists include Shannon Ziggerzaggerz Theus (Los Angeles), Dacia Polk (St. Louis), Schetauna Powell (Houston), Zaika Dos Santos (Brazil), and Queen Kukuyi (Canada) -- all standouts in the Black Speculative Arts Movement.

"I'm honored to lead this important discussion, which will illustrate the transformational impact of Black women's organizing through art, collective politics and freedom dreaming," Dr. Richmond said. "The history of Black women creatively and unconventionally organizing is long and fruitful.  Perhaps now more than ever, we see it transforming the lives of all people, particularly Black women and Black people of marginalized genders."

The Schomburg's Black Feminist Futures series highlights the relationship between Afrofuturism and Black feminism in literature, film, art, fashion, and community organizing. The program is presented by the Schomburg Center's 10th Annual Black Comic Book Festival.

Dr. Richmond, a pioneer in Afrofuturism, brought attention to the concept in 2018 when she presented and hosted the first Afrofuturism Lounge as part of the many  events offered during San Diego Comic Con. She later founded The Black Speculative Arts Movement, San Diego Chapter. Most recently, in her capacity as board member for Edfu Foundation, Inc., Dr. Richmond hosted “Black Women on Black Futurity”, a multigenerational conversation about visions for the future and how to get there as a parallel event during the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women.
Dr. Richmond holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from San Diego State University, a Masters in Information Systems from National University, and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from UC San Diego/CSU San Marcos. She has more than 15 years of experience in financial/business systems planning and organizational development and higher education administration at UC San Diego. You can learn more about Dr. Richmond at DrLaWana.com.

Register for the March 24th event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-feminist-futures-series-black-women-organizing-for-the-future-tickets-231908995047.

If you follow us on our Instagram account then you have already viewed our story on the upcoming collaboration by GLD and Marvel. If you're not following us, then I gotta ask: Why?, and also suggest you go over to our account a hit that follow button!

Now, You, might be asking: Who is GLD? -The GLD Shop self describes themselves as "Hip Hop Jewelry" and gained attention with people in the community such as Future, Snoop Dogg, and Wiz Khalifa sporting their merchandise. GLD currently has another partnership with the NBA and has gained a much wider audience from it. Most recently they were dubbed "the Nike of men's jewelry" by Forbes. Though it should be noted they do have women's jewelry for sale.

​We're here to give you the scoop on their latest collaboration with Marvel! They currently have previewed 3 pieces of the collection: Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Captain America. We have officially PR images of the jewelry below-

The release date is not set, but it was stated they would release this sometime this month - May 2020. The price point will be between $79-$99 and it was stated by the company that they will be "affordable", as well as pieces made of "solid gold and precious stones".

We'd love to know which piece is your favorite and if you'll be picking any up. Leave your comments below! -Don't see your favorite? GLD currently has a selection of other characters you can vote for. The top 10 will be released first. Characters include: Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Groot, Hulk, Hydra, Iron Man, Loki, Thanos, Thor, Venom, and Vision. Personally, we were hoping for a write in option so we could include characters like Miles Morales, Silk, Shuri, and Valkyrie. GLD is also having a giveaway for a solid gold Marvel pendant of your choice.

We'll keep this review short and simple. Afronauts recently saw "The Angry Birds Movie 2" - they kept the title real simple - and we liked it better than the first! We think you should go see it and if you're an adult, you'll enjoy it, but if your still a child -maybe wait a few years. The movie was hilarious, but most of the humor is geared towards adults. Some of the scenes had us rolling with laughter, but afterwards we both commented on how they were "not for children". The movie doesn't quite reach Family Guy inappropriateness, but definitely borders the line and even crosses it at some point for what kids should and shouldn't see.

As for the actual plot, like the title- it was simple, yet effective. It should be noted that it is not necessary to see the first movie in the series in order to enjoy and follow along with this sequel; they do a good job and filling the audience in with what happened previously. The movie follows Red and his friends who team up with the Pigs from the first movie, to save both of their islands from a 3rd and mysterious ice island. We meet new characters, most notably, Silver (voiced by Rachel Bloom), who is Chuck's sister. The moral of the movie is about working together as a team and not being selfish, but they did a good job with showing plenty of each character and not just focusing on Red. In fact they did a great job of developing the female character in away society doesn't normally see. They also encouraged STEM education making it a good movie for pre-teens. There's even a secondary story line going on with the Hatchlings who are trying to recover some eggs. It is cute and eventually ties in with the main plot. We don't want to spoil anything, so just go see it! You'll be laughing and maybe even be inspired to become and engineer!

As Marvel fans, of course, Afronauts jumped on to watch "Jessica Jones Season 3" on Netflix. This was not only the final season for the series, but also for all of the Marvel series on Netflix. Most of us know by now that Disney is launching their own subscription service on November-12 of this year, called: Disney Plus. The new subscription channel isn't just bringing us all of Disney and it's affiliates (i.e. Pixar) movies and content, but a bunch of new original shows as well. Most of the buzz is around the Marvel series that are linked directly to the movies and will star many of the actors from the theatrical releases, such as: Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), and Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier).

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT CONTINUE ANY FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS!
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So, what about Jessica Jones 3? We really liked season 1, but felt season 2 was dragged out and pointless. Honestly, you don't even need to watch season 2 to follow season 3; the recap before you start #3 is enough and will save hours of your valuable time. Season 3 starts out with a lot of potential- The villain is quite clever;  the series teases what could have been for the next Luke Cage season, had Disney not pulled the plug; Patricia "Patsy" Walker finally becomes Hellcat, although her Netflix version is very much different from her comic book version; and we're introduced to Erik Gelden, played by Benjamin Walker, and though he's also not like his comic book character, we liked the fresh take on a minor character.

Yet, the season finale finishes a bit weak. We garner that the writers were trying to set things up for the future and according to interviews, the Netflix Marvel team had no idea they were getting cancelled while they were in the process of making the last couple of series. So, to be fair, it wasn't a horrible ending given the circumstances. However, judging Season 3 on its own, we still have to say it could have been better. Things start to slide down hill for the show after they catch the villain, Gregory Salinger, played by Jeremy Bobb; It's at that point that Patricia starts her transformation as full blown Hellcat and it looks like they were trying to make her a villain. At least in this season she was. The direction they took Hellcat just seemed to be the wrong one. The series started to become a drama and pushed the "Patricia is wrong, Jessica is right" image. Netflix Marvel has always had this "discussion" and image of: What is right and wrong? How far is too far? To kill or not to kill? -We have no problem with that, but the way it was presented in this series finale was not believable with it's inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

• The Justice System - From the very beginning, Jessica seems hellbent on letting the "system" take care of things and letting the processes of the police and court work the way they are suppose to. Yet, she punishes Patricia on assumptions. In a few scenes Jessica tells Patricia several times about "what if" scenarios and while Patricia never does them, Jessica still hunts her down. Patricia really doesn't do anything different than Dare Devil in this season and especially not the Punisher, and we don't see Jessica going after them.
• Jeri Hogarth's Girlfriend - Jeri Hogarth, played by Carrie-Ann Moss, has a big role in Jessica Jones 3 and she is actually the subplot in season. Her life threatening ALS disease is getting worse and she seeks out her first ever lover, Kith, for companionship. The 2 have an on-off affair through the whole season, but then Hogarth is left alone in the end and all on the basis that her ex believes she only helped her because they were put in a life-threatening situation. None of that makes sense, as Hogarth tries to help this woman by any means possible the entire season and at one point Hogarth brings this lady to elation just be "eliminating" a situation with a man who threatened Kith's financial status. Seems kind of like Hogarth got used and some may say it was only fair for the way Hogarth uses people, but Kith is made out to be the "good person" in all of this and Hogarth the opposite. As her ex leaves, Hogarth says, "You are the last mistake I'll ever make", and we couldn't agree more - that woman was a mistake.
• Kith's Husband - Speaking of Kith, her husband commits suicide. This is the point where things start to go sour for her and Hogarth. Her husband commits suicide after Jeri has one of her employees dig up dirt on him to get Kith back. While Hogarth's intentions might not have been good, what this guy did was dirty! Kith and her husband have an open marriage, but it turned out this guy was stealing money to pay for rent and gifts for the ladies he was sleeping with and out of the charity they had for their deceased daughter. Him committing suicide, because his life was wreaked was his own doing and yet the show blames Hogarth solely. Seems quite lopsided.
• Malcolm as a Bad Guy - The character, Malcolm, from the previous season returns. We don't mean he was a villain, but he's definitely painted as a bad guy in his relationship. Yes, he does cheat on his girlfriend-of-the-season, but at that point we all know their relationship was over. The right thing would have been for him to end it first, but he obviously cared about her. The reality is that they were 2 people who had very different goals in life and as Malcolm fully comes to realize he doesn't want to be a dirty lawyer and wants to actually help people in need, his wanna-be-Hogarth girlfriend and himself drifts apart. There are several times where either of them could have broke it off and should have. Malcolm does apologize, but also does help someone else in the process. It's not picture perfect, but it also doesn't make him the horrible guy that they made him out to be.
• The Ending - The very ending is awful and leaves us unfulfilled. Jessica hands her business over to Malcolm and sends Erik Gelden, the character she has as a sidekick through the season, off to help the police with his ability to detect "bad people" through a unique 6th sense. Seems like she closed the chapter of her New York life, but as she's about to buy a one-way ticket at the train station, a voice from her head that sounds like Kilgrave from season 1 encourages her to go and she stops in defiance. Then rebellious music plays as the camera zooms out. This didn't make sense to us. Jessica spends the whole season trying to push everyone away, more so than in the past, and only calls on people when she absolutely needs help. Having just sent her best friend to prison and pushing away the 2 guys who have helped her all season, it seemed fitting that she would leave and start anew. Jessica is very broken all season from her mother's death in season 2 and it would have made more sense for her to get away from all of that. Not to mention, because it was the last series ever for the Marvel Netflix Universe, it would have made a better closing scene to end it all.

Most of the Marvel Netflix series failed to live up in to Dare Devil season 1. When Dare Devil first came out, it was definitely an ground breaking TV series since it has a cinematic-like feel to it. It set a new standard and a high standard that not even Netflix seemed to be able to live up to in the end. There were some great moments throughout several of the series' seasons, but while most started well, in the end we were left with melted afterthoughts. We won't miss these series too much and we look forward to see what Disney will do with these characters in the future, as well as their new series. If you have watched the Marvel Netflix show, you'll want to check out Jessica Jones 3 at some point, but there's no rush; it's not going anywhere and they're not making anymore.

Image used is for reference only and taken from Netflix in association with Marvel and Disney. Afronauts makes no claims to the creation or ownership.

Agent Bunnie remembers seeing her first ever movie in theaters and it just so happens it was the original "Aladdin" animated feature by Disney! Jasmine became the "childhood princess" for her and Bunnie grew up collecting toys and dressing up as the iconic Arabian princess. So, when the live action version of Aladdin was announced by Disney, there was quite a bit of excitement here at Afronauts.

However, before Aladdin rolled out, Disney gave us live action versions of  "Alice In Wonderland", "Sleeping Beauty" in the form of "Maleficent", "Cinderella", "The Junglebook", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Dumbo". The world has had plenty of opportunities to see Disney's vision of animation come to life and with the exception of Maleficent, these re-telling of the classic animations has Afronauts wondering: What is Disney's point in this trend? Besides trying to make money, obviously. Maleficent sticks out to us, because it's a movie that was quite different from the original Sleeping Beauty animation and is told from a completely different viewpoint; that of the villain. The rest of the movies, while little tweaks were made, it's primarily the same story that we've already taken in and there are some things that animation just simply does better than live action. In the live action Cinderella they had a ballroom dance scene with Cinderella and the Prince, but it definitely didn't capture the magic and serenity of the original animation and the same can be said for the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast or the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT CONTINUE ANY FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS!

With that said, we went into the theater to see Aladdin hoping for more then what Disney has given us previously with these live action movies. We can sum up our thoughts with: It's a good movie, but it's not great. Aladdin live action is still a re-telling of the animation, but it is nicely modified in its live action form. The musical scenes are not overly done and kept to a minimum, so as viewers we didn't feel overwhelmed or that feeling that it's not believable. The audience gets to see Jasmine as not just strong like in the animation, but also educated and smart. We even get more of the Genie character by Will Smith, as they seemed to have let him be more of a person than just Aladdin's sidekick in this version. Yet, when all is said and done, we left happy, but not overjoyed. Nothing new or innovative was given to us, and it was enough just for us to say- "At least they didn't ruin the story."

Disney will be releasing the live action Lion King and Maleficent later this year, and Mulan is set to be released in 2020 (if it doesn't get pushed back again). They also have 13 other titles in production set to come to theaters over the next handful of years; all of the live action films will be based on popular animations. We here at Afronauts hope they continue the Maleficent route with these films and would love to see less popular animated films get a re-do in live action, because if they're going to continue this trend they should be adding to the stories or making them better, and so far we're just seeing the same and it comes off very mediocre.

Overall Aladdin is a fun journey into one of our childhood classical storylands and in a Summer that isn't offering much other than sequels outside of Marvel's "Spiderman: Far From Home", it is worth seeing. Aladdin is still in theaters and doing well. It's set to be Will Smith's highest ever grossing film. It's a good movie for all ages and Will Smith will make you laugh, but don't go hoping for something better than the original.

Image used is for reference only and taken from Disney. Afronauts makes no claims to the creation or ownership.

twoWe're going to keep this review short and simple. By now, just about every [adult] has gone to the theaters to see John Wick 3, and let's be honest- most of you didn't know it was called "Parabellum" until just now. Keanu Reeves has done an excellent job at making John Wick not only a memorable character, but also a name that we care only to hear when referencing this series. So much so, that everybody seems to only know this movie as "John Wick 3" and some even skip the number altogether!

Afronauts has watched the first 2 movies, and while we were impressed with the 1st one and we generally liked the 2nd, we were left wondering if they could even make a 3rd that lived up to the hype and improve the story already set in motion. While John Wick 3 has already grossed more than the first two movies and has set a 4th film in motion already, while receiving mostly positive reviews, we here at Afronauts were not thrilled with it. Everyone we have talked to loved this film and gave it praise; It is the general public we most closely give our attention to, but we just can't agree. - Why? - Overall, the film lacked a story line that improved the line of films and why make more if they're not going to add to something?

The movie follows John Wick, of course, but this time he's being hunted by everyone who wants a bounty in exchange for his life. The movie jumps right into action from the last one and you would think that would mean we're going to get to some really good material straight out the gate, but it never actually comes. John Wick eventually leaves NYC and meets up with Hallie Berry's character, and the entire scene with her could have been cut out and we would still have the same movie. Then he goes to the desert to find the man who is in charge of this whole assassin's organization. He loses a finger, but is told he can be reinstated simply by killing his friend and the man who put the bounty on his head in the first place, Winston. And we had to ask ourselves again, why was this in the movie? Seemed quite pointless.

So, we find John Wick back in NYC, but now Winston is in the same position as Mr.Wick and the two join forces to stand against the assassin guild known as the High Table. It's a shoot out, followed by a one-on-one, and then there's a bit of surprise when Winston turns on John to regain his position at the NYC Continental. It ends with the Bowery King, played by Laurence Fishbourne, who has also been exiled from the High Table, recovering John Wick and leaves us believing the two of them will join forces in the 4th installment.

We already felt the series slipping down slope in the second movie, and this one actually slid pretty far down. Even the secondary story line with The Adjudicator, played by Asia Kate Dillon, is flat. She goes around from place to place "punishing" anyone who helped John Wick or failed to kill him when they could have, even before he was announced "excommunicado", which is really just her slicing them a bit with a knife and/or removing them from the High Table and in the end she essential does nothing to end Mr.Wick. The antagonist in the second movie, Santino D'Antonio, was at least a badass who outsmarted John Wick in the end. The main adversary, Zero, in this movie has a good sense of humor, but overall comes up short and a bit cheesy. The hunter in the previous installment play by Ruby Rose and known as "Ares" was much more suspenseful and clever. To top it off, the bounty amount didn't even seem high enough for the supposed high stake situation.

The best of the movie can be summed up as: Artistic Fight Scenes. The choreography and action scenes are top notch and they definitely went all out and put their best efforts into giving us creative and in some parts even elegant action. We can't argue with the praise given for that. Yet, that's not enough for us here at Afronauts to give praise to this film as a whole.

Like we mentioned before, John Wick 4 has already been announced with a release date of May 21, 2021. Afronauts will probably see it, but we won't be in a rush. Let us know your thoughts on John Wick 3 and the series altogether! Are you excited for the next installment? John Wick 3 is still in theaters if you haven't watched it, but unless you like action we would suggest you skip it.