The webinar series ‘Octavia Tried To Tell Us: Parable for Today’s Pandemic' explores themes from Octavia Butler's prescient Parable series. The discussion continued this Saturday with host Monica A. Coleman and Tananarive Due in conversation with activist and author Adrienne Maree Brown.
The trio discussed envisioning worlds without capitalism, finding allies in the apocalypse, and a brand-new Butler podcast hosted by Brown. Watch the full conversation below.
Brown is the author of Emergent Strategy, a guide for activism rooted in the framework of Octavia Butler's novels. Her most recent book, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, celebrates the joyful potential of social justice.
RELATED: She Tried to Wake Me: My Humbling First Meeting With Octavia Butler
Brown believes Butler's bibliography can be used as a framework for imagining new versions of our world. As she announced in this week's webinar, she will continue that conversation in the new podcast Octavia's Parables, which debuts Monday, June 22nd — the late Butler's birthday.
The podcast will be co-hosted by Brown with Toshi Reagon, co-creator of the Parable of the Sower opera adaptation. Each week, the hosts will discuss a different chapter in Butler's Parable series.
Although Due and Coleman's free Octavia Tried to Tell Us webinar series will move to a once-monthly schedule, the hosts announced Saturday that they are now offering a new, paid Octavia Butler workshop series called “Saving Ourselves: Shaping Change Workshop.” More information can be found here.
In this time of extreme and rapid Change, long-time Butler fans and new converts have a wealth of resources with which to explore how Butler's imagination can transform the world. Previous installments of the 'Octavia Tried to Tell' us series can be viewed in their entirety below.
- Watch the First Conversation in a New Octavia Butler Webinar Series!
- Watch the Second 'Octavia Tried to Tell Us' Webinar Featuring Toshi Reagon
- Watch: The Third 'Octavia Tried' Webinar Explores Art and Fear in the Era of Coronavirus
- The Third 'Octavia Tried to Tell Us' Webinar Explores the Myth of Saviors
Download Butler's Parable of the Sower now.
Featured photo via Wikimedia Commons.
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