Join us for a reading and conversation with adrienne maree brown, editor of Octavia's Brood, followed by a Sci Fi and Direct Action Training.
Adrienne will read from her pieces in the anthology, and engage in a community conversation around radical science fiction and organizing.
During the Sci Fi and Direct Action Training participants will use familiar stories of other worlds (such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Oz, Harry Potter, etc.) to design direct action campaigns that parallel the world we are fighting for in the here and now. By the end of the session, regimes will be toppled, evil forces vanquished and solid skills in direct action organizing developed.
[music will be provided by dj Kristy la rAt]
*Suggested donation of $5-15 for the Sci Fi and Direct Action Training* Space will be limited so please arrive early!
From the project website:
Whenever we try to envision a world without war, without violence, without prisons, without capitalism, we are engaging in an exercise of speculative fiction. Organizers and activists struggle tirelessly to create and envision another world, or many other worlds, just as science fiction does... so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than through writing original science fiction stories? Co-editors adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha offer us Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, as a way to uncover the truths buried in the fantastical – and to inject a healthy dose of the fantastical into our search for truth.
The anthology consists of radical science fiction/speculative fiction/fantasy/horror/magical realism short stories written by activist-writers who are actively involved in building movements for social change. They use their experience doing community work as the muse for their fiction. The collection will also include essays about the radical potential of science fiction by people like award-winning science fiction writer Tananarive Due and award-winning journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Octavia’s Brood (to be released summer 2014) is the first book to explore deeply the connections between radical science fiction, what we call “visionary fiction,” and movements for social change through the vehicle of short stories. We believe that radical science fiction is actually better termed visionary fiction because it pulls from real life experience, inequalities and movement building to create innovative ways of understanding the world around us, paint visions of new worlds that could be, and teach us new ways of interacting with one another. Visionary fiction engages our imaginations and hearts, and guides our hands as organizers.
Many radical minds believe this field was evolved by late science fiction writer Octavia Butler, for whom this collection is named. Butler explored the intersections of identity and imagination – exploring the gray areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, militarism, inequality, oppression, resistance and most importantly, hope.
About adrienne marie brown:
adrienne maree brown has been fanning the flame of Octavia Butler love through workshops and strategic readers for the past several years. She is approaching Octavia's work through the lens of emergent strategy - strategies rooted in relationship, adaptability, and embracing change.
Adrienne started writing when she was 2, won her first essay contest in the 6th grade, and was blogging 5000 people before blogs existed. Writing is her first passion, and throughout an incredible journey of social justice and movement facilitation as well as learning the doula path, her steady identity has been writer, penning words that are from the heart.
She is now a Kresge Literary Arts Fellow. She's written for Africana (now Black AOL), Wiretapmag.org, Alternet.org, HuffingtonPost.com, Feministing.com, Washingtonpost.com, Racewire.org, Left Turn; Race, Poverty and Ecology; and Yes. Now, Adrienne primarily and sometimes prolifically writes for her own blog - The Luscious Satyagraha, which has a readership of thousands - tracking her own personal and cultural transformation.