Kelechi Okafor’s debut novel fuses emotion and AI with black stories [@Kelechnekoff]

Productivity has changed ever since AI became widely available. However, we are only just beginning to understand the impact AI can have on our lives. What will happen once AI and technology begin encroaching on our friendships? Our romantic relationships? Impacting the way we feel and understand emotions?

Writer, cultural hero and pole fitness expert and podcast host Kelechi Okafor explores just that. In her debut collection, Edge of Here, Kelechi Okafor creates a world where technology intersects with our lives and emotions. The novel compiles eight short stories that all feature a Black female protagonist. We read about them exploring issues like reproductive rights, love, tech, racism, and more.

Notably, in the story “The Ally-Chip,” Okafor transports us to a future where a chip has been developed so that White people can experience racism in their minds and bodies. This novel pushes the boundaries of science fiction and implores the genre to be more creative and bold. Readers have called her work perfect for fans of Black Mirror.

Okafor says that she hopes that this novel gives Black women “love, tenderness, romance [because] they deserve to read about themselves—and not always in a traumatic way.”

Edge of Here is out now! Advanced copies were available at the launch event at Barbican Hall earlier this week. Additionally, readers are able to dive in with the specially curated playlist Okafor has specially curated here.

Discover more from GUAP’s Arts and Culture section here.