Nigel Richard

On our season finale we examine “wildcards”, a term among futurists for seemingly improbable events that, if they were to happen, would set the trajectory for the future. The episode features two of such possibilities: the elimination of race and of widespread racial reassignment, deconstructed by assistant professor of English at the State University of New York in Oneonta Sheena Mason, and writer Jess Row.

Post-humanist thinker, philosopher and poet Bayo Akomolafe, reflects on the ways in which Blackness can be trapped in the rhythmic call and response with whiteness, and explores ways of reimagining Black experiences.

"I find that listening to young people is like listening to the future,” Nigel says setting up this episode of Race Beyond Borders, which features the perspectives on the futures of race from young African people.

Remi Adekoya, author of Biracial Britain, breaks down demographic trends, and corresponding shifts in the way Blackness is lived and expressed in the United Kingdom.

Author and journalist Morgan Jerkins breaks down the construction of Black identity on the internet drawing on her work investigating the ways in which Blackness can be co-opted online.

London-based Zimbabwean new media artist Kumbirai Makumbe talks Black quantum futures, the multiplicity of Black experiences and how the digital sphere provides new territory on which to map the multiverse of Blackness, beyond the boundaries of Afrofuturism. 

Nigel Richard, host of season 3 of Race Beyond Borders, talks with Black futurists Geci Karuri-Sebina and Rasheedah Phillips about the practice of futures thinking.

In the Season 2 finale of Race Beyond Borders, outgoing host Sebabatso Manoeli-Lesame and incoming host Nigel Richard reflect on some of the critical questions raised this season. This lively conversation, which at times feels like a dance, invites listeners to look back on the season’s sonic safari that was launched in Italy, where Black Italians grapple with what to call themselves, and landed in Oceania, where liberation struggles actively engaged with Black internationalism in their battles against European colonial rule.