The third annual Afrofuturism conference saw an expansion in both the amount of participation and the support from donors, aligning with the 2026 theme of “Community.” Panels included public outreach, business, and health within the community, Latinx Futurist art, Afrofuturist music, various student projects related to Afrofuturism including video games, music, and poetry/spoken word, and literary research and discussions. The day was capped off with a new work of Afrofuturist dance and theatre conceived and choreographed by Everett Perry-Johnson. The event was sponsored by the TAMU College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, the Creative Media Lab, and a new donor, H.E.B.
The opening panel was community focused discussions by Kia Dolby, creative design consultant, and Chet Sisk, community development and affirmative action consultant. The talks were separate, but both participated in a cross-talk, round table style discussion, introducing Afrofuturism as a model and inspiration for community growth and improvement.
The second speaker was artist Ernesto Cuevas, a Latinx Futurist artist who spoke to his background, influences, and work with and for the communities with which he has ties. His talk also displayed striking images of his works, as well as pictures of his childhood and current life in the San Antonio area, featuring his recent car art project, among many other incredibly impressive pieces.
Following lunch (supplied by H.E.B.), Dr, Tavia Nyong’o spoke on the state of Afrofuturist music in his talk, Reckonings and Reverberations: The Cultural Politics of Silencing Rock Music. His fascinating presentation drew upon his years of research at Yale University, bringing together his knowledge of historical development of Afrofuturist songs and sounds alongside his work with science fiction and the LGBTQ+ communities.
The fourth panel of the day featured three TAMU students who have all engaged with Afrofuturism on various levels in different ways. Kevin Johnson presented new poetry with music and visuals, setting the stage for how Afrofuturism is being employed and embraced as a means to artistically express oneself in today’s East Texas social climate. Justin Hopson updated the conference goers on the development of his Afrofuturist video game Duskfire Chronicles: Echoes of Tomorrow, that takes place in an alternate dimensional version of Houston (where Hopson grew up). Wrapping up the panel was an electronic music performance by composer/artist Ilana Rahim-Braden, playing two bespoke synthesizers made by Spanish instrument company Synamodec, specifically for use with TAMU Music Program students.
[Conference Video 05 – Justin Hopson Presentation]
The final panel focused on English scholars reflecting on Afrofuturist writing. Dr. Claire Carly-Miles presented new research on Octavia Butler’s various works, and Dr. Rebecca Hankins connected previous discussions (from last year’s conference) to African science fiction and fantasy in Kenya.
After the conference, the attendees relocated downstairs to the Black Box Theatre for the new Afrofuturist dance piece, Celestial Bodies, conceived of and choreographed by PFVA dance professor Everett Perry-Johnson. The performance featured two members of the production team, D’Mya Tabron and Jam Martinez, as well as several TAMU dance students.
The 2027 Afrofuturism Explored! conference is already being organized, and the guest artists and speakers, theme, and satellite activities will be announced soon! For more information, please visit the Afrofuturism Explored! Website.
Well it has happened! We have another Creative Media Lab Ph.D.!
CONGRATULATIONS DR. RICK PULOS!!!
We are so proud to say that Rick is part of the Creative Media Lab. His contributions and presence has made the Creative Media Lab what it is today. Through his projects, mentorship and giving of his time to others, the Creative Media Lab became a hotbed for media production beyond what joey and Johnny offered. His willingness to engage with others is amazing and inspiring. Along with his work with the Creative Media Lab, in my opinion (joey), Rick also has played a major role at the Theatre Company of Bryan/College Station, one of our local theater companies. He has produced media for them, directed plays, and helped behind the scenes for the duration of his time here at A&M.
Rick’s dissertation has also been a seminal piece of the Department of Communication & Journalism. His dissertation Queer Geek Joy: The Politics, Practices, and Pleasures of LGBTQ+ Sci-fi Fans is multi-modal project consisting of a written portion, documentaries & a public dissertation defense. His work goes in depth looking at sci-fi fandom and queerness. While we have not had the chance to read the dissertation, we (joey, Will, Campbell and Johnny) were able to attend the defense and view the documentaries that he produced showcasing the findings of his research. To say the least we were blown away and found his work to be stellar and made us all smile and proud to witness such a defense.
As I compiled this piece (joey), I was going to go through all of the contributions Rick has made with the CML and the greater creative community in BCS and to be honest, it was just too overwhelming. His work in my opinion is exhaustive and just down right amazing. We (the CML) were able to house his documentation in such a way as for us to capture it as he accomplished it. We are floored by his work and accomplishments, as stated before he has not only contributed to the Creative Media Lab, but has been a pillar of it. We cannot thank him enough for all he has contributed to the Creative Media Lab. Rick, THANK YOU!
Dr. Rick Pulos, thank you for all you have done, we are all so proud of you and your accomplishments. We are excited to have learned that you accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. We cannot wait to begin collaborating with you at your new position.
One last note, the Convergent Media Collective as a whole congratulates you on all your accomplishments, a number of them read this piece before publishing and were just blown away!
Below is an exhaustive list of everything we could find that Rick contributed during his time with the Creative Media Lab, you will see links to semester write ups were you can find the full rundown of the work listed.
Created The Sound of Music commercial with Creative Media Lab member Leo Garza for the Theatre Company of Bryan College-Station (Fall 2025)
Write, directed, and edited the “Magic Popcorn” commercial with Creative Media Lab member KHAAN for KBTX for the Theatre Company of Bryan College-Station (Spring 2025)
Dissertation Fieldwork.
Received the Texas A&M University former students award for Distinguished Teaching.
Summer to Fall 2025
Dissertation Fieldwork: Rick traveled to NYC, Philadelphia, Hilliard (Ohio), Miami, Washington D.C., Virginia Beach, Maryland, and Southern California.
Produced and Directed the Theatre Company of BCS’s Season 36 highlight video
Rick’s short film “Once Upon a Time…in Community Theatre” won Best Texas Documentary at the Texas Short Film Festival.See the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyScRCxgR9M
Dissertation Defense (Spring 2026)
Texas A&M Graduation (Summer 2026)
Accepted Communication Tenure Track Faculty Position at University of Cincinnati Clermont College (Spring 2026)
Rick is currently directing and designing projections for Hedwig and the Angry Inch which plays June 25, 26, and 27 at 7PM at the Theatre Company of BCS: https://www.theatrecompany.com/tickets
I am super proud to announce that my good friend, colleague and mentee Jonathan Guajardo passed his oral exams for his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech. It has been an honor to sit on his committee. I have to say as a professor of the practice I have not been allowed to be on our students committees, so being on his committee had a ton of meaning as it’s the first time I have been on one. (it’s a department rule they have, granted I can be in other departments and colleges in the university, go figure).
I have had the pleasure of working with graduate students for years at Texas A&M, such as Anthony Ramirez, Rick Pulos, David Dockery, Maria Martha & Valentina Arduen. I even got to hood Anthony at his graduation, which was a deep honor.
Working with Johnny over the past 16 years, since has 19 years old has been a journey. Through and through he has always stepped up with anything put in front of him. Along with many friends from UIW and our mutual best friend Christian Rios, our academic journeys while 10 years apart has been in step. I had the pleasure of teaching Johnny at UIW from 2010-2014 where he obtained his B.A. and M.A. As an undergraduate and graduate it was amazing to see his colleagues and himself operate under a polymath like model, doing:
News Production/Journalism
Narrative Film Production
Digital Media Studies
Student Government (Johnny was Student Body President 3 years)
Event Planning & Production
Projection Mapping
DJ’ing (His DJ name being DJ DaJohnnyG)
Museum Curation and installation
For his masters project he created a website where he researched the lineage of alternative pedagogy from which he was learning. Called The BMC Effect, his website explored Black Mountain Colleges Effect on higher education, then explored the ACTLab’s impact on alternative pedagogical approaches and worked his way into the Convergent Media program he was attending at the time at the University of Incarnate Word.
Through this UIW experience, sadly I will say our biggest bonding moment was when his colleague and fellow student Cameron Redus passed away in a very tragic manner by the UIW police. This journey would lead Johnny to mobilize along with his fellow students to host demonstrations and public speaking events where he would directly engage with the greater San Antonio community and national media. At one point he was at a Pro-Life rally giving a speech and then the Black Panther rally addressing Cameron’s passing.
Johnny gained real life experiences through the pedagogical approaches and he would go on to institute himself in the future. Though before doing this, he would go on to take his experience in convergent media and go full time running GA Media Productions for 4 years. He would gain clients like Nature Sweet Tomatoes, AARP, ESPN, SXSW, Texas Golf Insider and many more. He officed out the Milam building in downtown San Antonio and developed a whole crew of sub contractors.
His entrepreneurial experience during this time would grow. Along with his production company he also started the San Antonio Sentinel, a hyper local news paper that covered politics, arts and entertainment. Through this experience he would meet the leaders of San Antonio and Bexar county and develop relationships that would have him grow as an entrepreneur, civic engagement and academic.
And then in 2019 I convinced Johnny to apply to be a professor at Texas A&M as a lecturer. I knew at the time he was considering many opportunities for his next step in life. He had applied to the Ph.D. program at Texas A&M’s Department of Communication & Journalism and did not get in, one month before I asked him to apply. Luckily I was able to convince him and next thing I know, Johnny and I are working together at Texas A&M, forging a new lab which would become the Creative Media Lab.
Over the next 7 years we would develop the Creative Media, Johnny specifically would develop entrepreneurship in new media curriculum and have a course put on the books COMM 377 Entrepreneurship and New Media. He would also teach multiple FYEX – 101 First Year Experience Hullabaloo U courses where he mentors new A&M students and provides their first experiences of the university.
Jonathan would be promoted to assistant professor of the practice and recently was promoted to associate professor of the practice. During this journey, 4 years in, he would decide to begin looking at Ph.D. programs again and after much consideration chose Texas Tech’s Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration. Once he began the program I observed him quickly gaining knowledge about higher education administration and applying it right away. From the way he carried himself in the classroom to faculty meetings, he was gaining a confidence and ability to communicate his ideas that I was surprised when we recently obtained his promotion to associate professor of the practice. Within the Creative Media Lab I was began advocating for Johnny to have an official role in lab as to this point, he was supporting through his service for the department. At the time I was the director of the Creative Media Lab and our department offered us a Coordinator and Associate Coordinator position for myself and Johnny. Having learned from Johnny and my academic mentors Sandy Stone, Andrew Garrison, Joe Straubhaar and Brandonly Wiley, I asked the department if they could make our titles “Co-Coordinators” in an effort to bring equity to the titles as I felt Johnny’s level of involved and importance to the lab was that significant (if not more). Our department chair supported this and he became the Creative Media Lab Co-Coordinator which he carries to this day. During his graduate program he would attend Texas Tech University and experience on-campus boot camps where he and his colleagues would be immersed in a rapid learning environment and team building. He would come back fired up, telling the tales of the events inside and outside the classroom ready to implement his teachings. We would use his teachings to further expand the lab, using his organization leadership skills to develop programming, plan events, solicit funds for support and the physical build expansion of our lab. Through these experiences at Texas Tech he would select the topic of 3rd spaces in the digital realm as his dissertation topic.
Johnny asked me to be on his dissertation committee. He quickly began working away on his dissertation with Texas Tech professor Jon Mcnaughtan Ph.D. as his dissertation chair and Texas Tech professor Stephanie Jones Ph.D.. As we met for his proposal approval it was great to meet the professor who had a major impact on Johnny’s educational trajectory and hear their perspectives and approaches. Johnny’s dissertation was no easy task, having to obtain IRB approval from two institutions and garnering a pool of interviewees as well as observations. It was great watching him go through this rite of passage. It definitely has taken me back to the stresses I went through, watched Corina go through and so many others. Being a committee member at his defense two weeks ago was an honor and something I really enjoyed. His oral defense and dissertation approval have both now been signed off on, having given a great presentation and updating and addressing the concerns of all committee members. I am proud to have Johnny as a friend and colleague and love that I can now introduce him as Dr. Johnny G…. Aka Dr. Guajardo. Kudos Johnny! Well deserved and well earned.
