Cosmic Latte is a recent work by Sonya Lindfors, that was showcased in Lisbon, integrated in the Alkantara Festival program of the last edition – clearly the most political one, and the less artistical. This work, from the cameroonian-finnish artist, equates and portrays the possibility of a future, in the year 2321, where there will be no color distinction, based on the idea of «Afrofutorism», everyone will have equal opportunaties, namely the Afro-community, that finally will have conquered their representative space. Cosmic Latte is a kind of place in the cosmos universe immersed in an environment that resembles a morning drink, resulting from the mixture of coffee and milk – notice, with the same proportions –, being irrelevant who has predominance in this fluid ballet. So it rest upon us to define, and in consensus, name this relationship. Luckily we have enough time to decide but we can agree already that cappucino is not an option.
Personally, I must confess, being able to see this spectacle was, in the one hand, surprisingly relevant – because of the contact with the afrofuturism concept and in a real proposal, that plants the curiosity to investigate more about the subject –, but on the other, extremely disappointing – given that some doubts remain about such a romantic and naive perspective of what will be and how will humanity behave in three hundred years from now.
Summarisedly, the «Afrofuturism» movement emerged in the 1960s with the mission of ensuring the inclusion of black people in the projections of the future, precisely in reaction to the non-existence of black people in the futuristic imagination, like in the science fiction, neither in screens or in books. Sun Ra was the predecessor of this political-artistic movement, that currently has pop icons as ambassadors, such as Beyoncé or Janelle Monáe. Basically, the big goal of afrofuturism is to open space to build new but exclusively black narratives. A legitimate territory, however, will this demand not contain controversy in itself, since ideologically – and even if not by retaliation – excludes all people who are not black or Afro-descendants?
The play Cosmic Latte transports us, aesthetically and politically, to this dimension for a fair future, with the exception that it presents diversity in its cast, and where none is the protagonist, each one is just a living part of this cosmic and immersive imaginary. However, there are some dramaturgical and aesthetic weaknesses – like, for example, the wardrobe options and the themes that motivate a speech –, a few practical inconsistencies, which leave it below an endless of possibilities, given the prospect of progress that we are witnessing today: the technology advance – Metaverse –, so reported in the world press.
Actually, the future maybe will be peaceful, but not for the best reasons (wishing to be wrong), it’s a proven fact that life, like we know it will not exist, would be for sure a virtual experience in a cyberspace, as we can preview in the film saga The Matrix. With the evolution of technology – sponsored by Mr.FacebookMeta – we will live in a virtual world: Metaverse, expected to replicate real experiences using virtual devices, that is, to create a reality simulator, but not tangible, in a non-place and in a network way, fully connected. An assumption that will raise serious concerns such as: the loss of privacy, including our mental data; the promotion of misinformation; or human control and cognitive regression. So, with this information and returning to Cosmic Latte, it’s easy to realize that we were faced with an utopia.
To conclude this essay, one last note, during the first part of the show, we could hear the following lyrics, in an immersive song: …we are here forever, forever-ever. So, the question is: We, who?, The human being?Sorry, it might sound like a spoiler, but it’s not true that we are here forever, because we are just human beings, cognitively complex but really fragile, very ambitious but not so conscious. To be scientifically correct, at least, the beings that will be here forever are just bacteria. Given the fact, that in a possible catastrophic scenario – including the total bankruptcy of technology –, only these tiny beings will survive, and from that point onwards, bacteria will start a new chapter on the planet earth, developing an all diversity of beings. This, perhaps, would really be the next future present.
«COSMIC LATTE», 26-27 November 2021, TBA | Choreography and concept SONYA LINDFORS | Working group DEOGRACIAS MASOMI, IMA IDUOZEE, PAULIINA SJÖBERG, GEOFFREY ERISTA and ESETE SUTINEN | Cast (in Lisbon) DEOGRACIAS MASOMI, ZEN JEFFERSON, PAULIINA SJÖBERG, SELMA KAUPPINEN and SONYA LINDFORS | Choreography assistants ESETE SUTINEN, PAULIINA SJÖBERG | Light design ERNO AALTONEN | Sound design JUSSI MATIKAINEN | Costumes SANNA LEVO and PAULIINA SJÖBERG | Production ZODIAK – Center for New Dance, SONYA LINDFORS, UrbanApa | Photographs UWA IDUOZEE