"Does My Candy Cross Your Mind, Anytime?": The Whimsical, Mundane, Afrofuturist Place-Making of Philadelphia's Singing Candy Lady

Abstract: Lynette D. Morrison, the Singing Candy Lady (SCL), is a beloved folk icon in Philadelphia, especially among Black working-class residents. She roams the city with her yellow box of popular candies, singing, joking, and encouraging folks to buy her candy. Her presence and personality inspire a sense of place for those who reside in dispossession. However, when identifying the needs of the 'hood, figures such as the SCL may seem trivial when compared to other more "serious" efforts and actors. Responding to artist Martine Syms' call for Mundane Afrofuturists, I recognize the SCL's role as a whimsical mundane Afrofuturist place-maker. She charts the city with her myth-making aesthetic, clownin', and audacious possession of the streets, building alternate spaces where Black people can derive rebellious comfort and pleasure in acting silly and indulging in sweets, in plain view of everyone. These encounters are shared on social media, documenting SCL's affective labor in guiding Black people to take up space and time, attesting to the abundance of their Black lives. I argue that the SCL's rebellious hospitality and whimsical cartography overlays normativizing maps of both anti-Black violence and Black resistance with counter-maps and counter-narratives that anticipate geographies of Black frivolity and belonging.