Biography

LaFleur is a globally recognized curator, design innovationist, pleasure activist and Afrofuturist committed to exploring and implementing forward-thinking solutions across multidisciplinary industries including but not limited to art, technology, education, social enterprise, and finance.

A designer of afrofuture experiences, LaFleur regularly gives keynote speeches, participates in and moderates panel discussions, and hosts workshops on artistic, technological, spiritual, and post-structural ideas on Afrofuturism in theory and practice. She boasts an extensive list of speaking engagements nationally and internationally including presentations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, TEDxDetroit, Ideas City, New Museum (New York), Harvard University, and Oxford University.  Her work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR’s This American Life, and Hyperallergic to name a few.

As a curator, LaFleur believes in challenging our assumptions about the aesthetics of the future, while also exposing audiences to different types of future-visioning practices and emerging technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. Most recently, LaFleur curated Futurisms at Virginia Commonwealth University in Doha, Qatar which brought together Afrofuturism in conversation with Sci-Fi Sufism and Muslim Futures.

Formally educated as an art historian, LaFleur began her career in marketing at the Museum for African Art in New York City eventually returning home to Detroit. Wanting to participate in the cultivation of Detroit’s future, she founded AFROTOPIA, an experimental creative platform that explored Afrofuturism in Detroit through performance art festivals, curated film series, exhibitions and workshops.

LaFleur combined her passion for art, emerging technology, and social change and ran for Mayor of Detroit in 2017. During her campaign, she organized a political campaign based on the principles of decolonization. LaFleur held a weekly gathering at her campaign office called co-creation sessions to discuss pertinent issues like legalization and equity in the cannabis industry, growing the creative economy, increasing adult literacy, cryptocurrency, and instituting restorative justice practices. Each session cultivated relationships and support from the social justice, creative, and business communities and resulted in a plan of action. LaFleur’s plan for Detroit included creating a cryptocurrency for a universal basic income for city residents.

In 2018, she joined EOS Detroit where she served as Chief Community Officer to further explore alternative economies using blockchain technology. As CCO, LaFleur organized educational workshops on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency and created monthly conversations on the uses of blockchain technology in businesses and communities. LaFleur served as the Social Impact Advisor for the Detroit Blockchain Center (DBC) researching community-based currencies and the creation of DACs (decentralized autonomous communities). LaFleur continues to collaborate with DBC on blockchain tech social impact projects.

In 2020, she founded The Afrofutures Strategies Institute (TASI), to research the future impact of emerging trends in technology, economics, politics, and science on Black bodies. TASI also produces workshops that co-create alternative destinies using ethical imagination and guide communities in digital transformations.

LaFleur enjoys being in conversation with insightful afrofuture thinkers and decolonizing practitioners. She hosted the podcast, Decolonizing your Destiny (DYD), a conversation that invited guests to share ideas and behaviors that promote the unlocking and remembering of indigenous wisdom. At the start of the COVID pandemic, LaFleur created What Does the Afrofuture Say? which culled the perspectives of nearly four dozen leading minds across the intersections of art, technology, and community to discuss, explore and propose a range of possible or imaginable futures during such uncertainty.

Currently, she is working on her first book, How to Think Like an Afrofuturist, a working title. The project seeks to examine and offer practices and critical thought for developing future visions, scenarios, expectations, and strategic plans in relation to self and others, that disrupt the conventions and norms of society. LaFleur’s work centers Black liberation, and the creation of just futures through art, joy, and active decolonization.

LaFleur holds a B.A. in Art with a focus on Art History from Spelman College and attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University for her M.A. She is currently studying at the University of Houston for an M.S. in Foresight. LaFleur is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. She is a proud native of Detroit, Michigan, and is a bonafide citizen of the world. 

Learn more: @ingridlafleur on Twitter; @maisonlafleur on Instagram. 

Press

Time Magazine: Black History Month is Over. What About Black Future Month?

New York Times: Ingrid LaFleur, Artist and Curator, Enters Detroit’s Mayoral Race

NPR This American Life: We Are The Future

Detroit Cultural: Towards a New Relationship With Black Bodies: In Conversation with Ingrid LaFleur

What is Emerging: A Shift in Consciousness is Needed to Decolonise Our Current Systems