Electric Lady

 

Aja Romano’s “Janelle Monáe’s body of work is a masterpiece of modern science fiction” will be my topic for this blog post. In the article, Romano dives into the intricacies of Monáe’s discography and what elements of her personal life really impact her afrofuturist work. What I found most interesting about this was how influential her queerness is in the timing of her work. The article points out that her release of “Dirty Computer” which clearly featured a gay love story, aligned with her public coming out, and the strength of color symbolism aligning with queerness in her work. Monáe’s ability to depict the experience of ‘otherness’ through her extensive android metaphor is truly incredible. It is so subtle to depict minorities through androids when she works in such a classic afrofuturist context. 

Something I liked about this article was how often Romano related Monáe’s work to other well known works like “Blade Runner”, “The Matrix'',  or the legacy of Harriet Tubman. I think proving all these connections in Monáes work gave her a seat at the table of influential art. I think Romano did a beautiful job of  displaying why Monáe’s work is so powerful. I thought it was curious that she did not poke at the idea that “Electric Lady” might be a nod to Jimi Hendrix’s  album “Electric Ladyland”.