When I think about imagining better futures, two people spring to mind immediately – Octavia E. Butler and adrienne maree brown – so I thought what better place to start than with their works? From there, I will see what organically emerges as a next topic/author/theme/group. I want to make sure many different groups and perspectives are highlighted, so while I think all the works of Butler and brown are relevant to this project, I’ve picked a handful with which to begin. I may return to their works later in the project, but the titles I’ve decided to start with are:
Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler: These works are prescient and relevant to the times, and they take place in the 2020s, so these seemed to me the obvious choice to start with of all of Butler’s works.
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown: This is brown’s first solo work and is inspired by the works of Octavia E. Butler, so it is a natural follow up to the Parable books.
Octavia’s Brood, edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha: This anthology is also inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s works and many authors I love and respect contributed to it. The description of the book says, “These visionary tales span genres […] but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be.”
I can’t imagine a better place to begin this project! Following Octavia Butler, my plan is to read works from Indigenous folks, Palestinians, anarchists, and disabled folks. And we’ll see where things take me from there. I’m really excited to dig deep into these works and see what I can unearth about how humans imagine the future!
If you want to follow along, you can view the first 20 books I plan to read here, in no particular order.
