Front Porch Reading Series

Front Porch Arts Center’s Reading Series celebrates local authors, performers and writers in a open mic setting with a different featured writer each month. For this Women’s History month edition we are feauturing two Black women science fiction authors making significant contributions to a genre historically dominated by White men.

Ytasha L. Womack is an award-winning author, filmmaker, narrative experience designer, independent scholar, and dance therapist. She is a leading expert on Afrofuturism along with imaginative creative practices who lectures on the imagination and its applications across the world. Her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi and Fantasy Culture (Chicago Review Press) is the leading primer on the subject and is taught in colleges and universities.

She is also featured in the Smithsonian’s documentary Afrofuturism: An Origin Story. She was a co-curator for Carnegie Hall’s 2022 Afrofuturism Festival, a national event which includes music showcases, dance, workshops, and panels.

Ytasha has several books slated for upcoming release. Black Moon Ritual, a graphic novella with Alitha Martinez (AWA/FUTURIFIC, February 2026), Spider-Man Miles Morales- An Exploration, (Marvel Age in Comics Series, Bloomsbury June 2026) and Blak Kube (Megascope), with Tanna Tucker, debuts in 2026. She also wrote the award winning Afrofuturist themed skyshow animation, Niyah and the Multiverse with Tayler Witten for The Adler Planetarium.

Maryck Allyson is a science fiction author born and raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Guided by the belief that if the world around you doesn’t reflect the one you dream of, you have the power to create your own, she channels that vision into her storytelling. Her debut novel, Onyx Complex, invites readers into a bold new universe shaped by imagination, resilience, and possibility. She hopes readers enjoy exploring this world as much as she enjoyed bringing it to life.

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Host or Publisher Front Porch Arts Center