Five months after its release, scholars are still meticulously dissecting Ryan Coogler’s film in the hopes of gaining a thorough understanding of its impact on the black community. The 2018 San Diego Comic Convention panel “Beyond Wakanda: Intersectional Afrofuturism” analyzed “Black Panther” as well as the literary works of Octavia Butler, a black feminist and science fiction author, through the lens of Afrofuturism while encouraging audience engagement. Afrofuturism is a black aesthetic, philosophical and artistic movement that dates back to the mid-20th century, said panelist Dalena Hunter, an archivist and librarian at the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Among other panelists discussing the movement were Shani Miller and Kelly Besser, UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive and Library Special Collections archivists, respectively, as well as UC Irvine assistant professor Roderic Crooks.

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