Join The Maine Humanities Council for its first ever MHC-led statewide Discussion Project! This winter MHC’s Associate Director, Samaa Abdurraqib, will lead us in rich discussion of texts examining Afrofuturism and Octavia Butler’s work as a lead-in to our 2022 Reader’s Retreat event. This Discussion Project session is co-sponsored by The Third Place.
Our texts:
Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler
Parable of the Sower (graphic novel), by Octavia Butler; adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jenning
Selections from Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, by Ytasha Womack
Selections from “Octavia’s Parables”, a podcast series by Toshi Reagon and Adrienne Marie Brown
Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed is a sweeping, cross-century, epic novel that spans time and geographic space to tell a story of power and control, eugenics, evolution, racism, gender dynamics, and mortality. Wild Seed is the first book in Butler’s Patternist series and has been called Butler’s best novel.
"Wild Seed is a book that shifted my life....It is as epic, as game-changing, as moving and brilliant as any science fiction novel ever written." — Viola Davis
"More than any novel I've ever read, Octavia Butler's Wild Seed examines power, what it means to wield it responsibly and what it means to resist it when it is wielded capriciously." Rion Amilcar Scott, PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize-winning author of Insurrections
Damian Duffy’s and John Jenning’s stunning graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower brings her highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror to life. This searing vision of America’s future is set in 2024. The country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.
“One of the most intense, thought-provoking books I've ever read. A miraculous young woman survives — and transforms — a post-apocalyptic United States. Powerful and prescient.” Recommended By Rosalie F., Powells.com
The group will also read selections from Ytasha Womack’s Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and will listen to selected episodes from “Octavia’s Parables” - a podcast series created and led by Toshi Reagon and Adrienne Marie Brown.
LOCATION: On-line via Zoom
DATES: Jan 12 / Jan 26 / Feb 9 / Feb 23
TIME: 5:30-7pm
Space is limited; pre-registration is required. The group is free, all readings provided.