Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was an award-winning Black woman speculative fiction author who changed the world with her writing and ways of being in the world. From childhood onward, she wrote herself into the larger genres of speculative fiction where she and others like her had been excluded. She wanted to be a writer from early childhood and put all her energy into becoming a writer with many twists and turns.
This session explores character and calling--those stories we tell ourselves that reject, amplify, or redirect the stories that are told for and about us. In a 1983 notebook, she wrote, “Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.” We will explore the ways self-creation can teach us about ourselves in a challenging world of uncertainty.
Ayana Jamieson, PhD is a mythologist and depth psychologist. She is the founder and creative director of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community and digital humanities project founded in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia E. Butler’s life and work while creating new works inspired by Butler’s legacy. She is the advising curator for the exhibition, “Octavia E. Butler: Seeding Futures” at the San Diego New Children’s Museum. Dr. Jamieson’s essay, “Far Beyond the Stars” appears in the Black Futures anthology. She has also published at The Feminist Wire, Public Books, Sierra Club Magazine, Belonging Identity, Language Diversity, New Global Politics, and elsewhere. She also wrote a chapter in Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction. She is an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies with an emphasis in African American Studies.
SJPLA’s Wellbeing Series is a free workshop every second Thursday of the month at 11 am. The workshops introduce a variety of healing modalities as part of our Racial Equity in Homelessness Initiative. These sessions promote personal rest, renewal, and connection creating space for discussion on how to sustain wellbeing practices.
