Ytasha L. Womack is an award-winning author, filmmaker, independent scholar, and dance therapist. She is a leading expert on Afrofuturism, the imagination and its applications and frequently lectures on the subject across the world.  Ytasha was honored among DesignHub’s 40 Under 40 designers for social good and innovation in 2017 and listed as a Filmmaker to Watch in The Chicago Tribune. Her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi and Fantasy Culture (Chicago Review Press) is the leading primer on the subject and taught in colleges and universities. Afrofuturism is also a Locus Awards Nonfiction Finalist.  

A prolific writer, her other books include the time travel novels Rayla 2212 and Rayla 2213 (YSolstar); Post Black (Chicago Review Press), and Beats Rhymes and Life: What We Love & Hate About Hip Hop (Random House).  The Rayla 2212 series inspired the Race in Space Conference at Duke University where she was a featured artist along with keynote speaker and astronaut Mae Jemison. Her Afrofuturism novella A Spaceship in Bronzeville (Mouse Books) will be released later this year.