Space fantasy: Nagaoka Shusei's contributions to Afrofuturist visual culture

The thing that enchanted me about [I Am] was the artwork. The vast Nubian army, the Egyptian-themed landscape, the futuristic city on the horizon, and floating above it…four flying saucers. … These images were my introduction to this inspiring and aesthetically breathtaking universe. … There's something about seeing Black people with robots and spaceships that makes me SOOOO happy! Probably because I spent my entire childhood watching white folks going to other planets, traveling through time, building androids or visiting aliens. (Conyers, 2018) The Raise! album cover is [a] visual portal that sets my imagination adrift. This album's cover art now teleports me to a pool party at a distant interplanetary settlement of liberated Black people. Two-stepping and finger-snapping, everyone is united by a cosmic funk groove. (Haywood, 2021, p. 28) With the success of the Black Panther movies (2018 and 2022) and extended franchise, and the high-profile exhibit and publication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, titled Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures (Strait & Conwill, 2023), academics working within the large and diverse field of Afrofuturism must feel their work is finally coming to be understood by the general public. A movement with ties to visual art, design, fashion, architecture, film, music, theater, literature, dance, and grassroots organizing, Afrofuturism has flourished as an international phenomenon, with scholars now acknowledging a third stage in its long development (Anderson, 2023, pp. 59–60). The foundations of Afrofuturism lie in the efforts and aspirations of African, African American, and other African diasporic actors. And yet in the realm of African American popular music, there was a special window in time when a diasporic Japanese illustrator based in Los Angeles, California—Nagaoka Shusei—worked to create some of the most iconic and well-loved album covers in the Afrofuturist pantheon (including the two LPs described in the epigraphs). This article examines in detail his contributions to such Afrofuturist visual culture, primarily through the lens of his album cover work with the African American super group Earth, Wind & Fire. Central to this artistic endeavor was the special relationship Nagaoka nurtured and maintained throughout his life with Earth, Wind & Fire's founder, Maurice White. In combination with the lyrics, themes, costumes, choreography, and, of course, the music, Nagaoka's art would complete White's vision for his band. Their collaboration was also appreciated in a special way among Earth, Wind & Fire's Japanese fan base. Afrofuturists sought to unearth the missing history of people of African descent and their roles in science, technology, and science fiction. They also aimed to reintegrate people of color into the discussion of cyberculture, modern science, technology, and sci-fi pop culture. (Womack, 2013, pp. 17–18) Reimagining the Black experience of the past provides new templates for reimagining Black futures to come—while also informing Black life in the present. As an aesthetic, Afrofuturism appears in Black art, often combing the beauty of ancient African civilizations with the hard-wrought preserved knowledge that endured enslavement—art that also points toward different futures. By envisioning a history unimpeded by the restrictions of racism, Afrofuturism provides an alternative pathway for African American artistry and creativity. (Strait, 2023, p. 12) From distant galaxies to the oceans' depths, space is a defining feature of Afrofuturism. To upend how the traumas of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism continue to organize our sociopolitical present and future, Black makers and thinkers have long looked to space—outer space, inner space, cyberspace, the space—for room to grow, for more amenable geographies and species, and for places to hide and flourish. (Barber, 2023, p. 34; emphasis in original) Space and fantasy were passions in Nagaoka Shusei's visual universe, the two terms and images coming together in a way that would permanently bind together Nagaoka with Earth, Wind & Fire. It is a story of Japanese and African American synergies, sympathies, and respect between two individuals with a shared view of humanity, one that embraced difference and looked past the artificial boundaries of race and nationality. It also serves as an example of imagination as expressed through the medium of science fiction and technology that speaks to the potential of alternative, positive presents and futures for all oppressed diasporic peoples. Nagaoka Shusei (Nagaoka Sh u ¯ $$ \overline{\mathrm{u}} $$ sei長岡秀星; family name, given name)2 came into the world during one of the most tumultuous periods between his birth country of Japan and his adopted home of the United States. His relationship with both nations would remain complicated throughout his life, though over time he would come to be recognized and loved by audiences and critics on both sides of the Pacific. Nagaoka was born the third son of a port customs officer in Nagasaki on the northwest coast of Kyushu on November 26, 1936. Only a year later the second Sino-Japanese War began, and by 1940 Japan had formally joined World War II. 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