Thousands of people are expected at the Hilton Downtown Chicago this weekend for WakandaCon 2018, a celebration of Afro-Futurism inspired by the fictional country in Marvel Comics. Activists, artists, and scholars will be presenting panel discussions and activities from Friday through Sunday. Many of the sessions attempt to make the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther a tool for shaping public discourse. There are sessions on urbanism, social justice, education, and economics inspired by the film. Chelsea Frazier, a Northwestern PhD student, is presenting a panel discussion on Black empowerment in the environmental movement. For her, the Black Panther movie provides insight into how Black feminism can be leveraged to fight environmental destruction. Frazier argues in her academic research that colonialism is intimately related to environmental exploitation through something she calls the “colonial earth ethic.” To preview the kind of topics that’ll be discussed at WakandaCon, we’ll be joined by Chelsea Frazier.