Episode 32: the Earthseed Series with adrienne maree brown - a podcast by The Lit Review

Hosts: Monica Trinidad & Page May
Guest: adrienne maree brown
Date: November 6, 2017
Time: 1:22:32
Intro Song: Brujas by Princess Nokia
Sound: Sarah Lu
Recorded with a live audience! Apologies for loud (but joyful) laughter that might hurt your ears! :)
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What is the destiny of human beings inside our current conditions? Do you have your “go bag” ready? Are you ready to lose everything and everyone in order to get free? Aren’t these intense questions? These are just some of the themes that are explored in Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, a two-book series of dystopian, science fiction novels by the late Octavia E. Butler, where society has collapsed due to climate change, capitalism, and christianity, and people, many strangers, have to create community in order to survive.

Dubbed the Earthseed series, Octavia Butler’s books have been recently brought up in mainstream outlets as predicting our current Trump administration, due to the slogan “Make America Great Again” being used by Parables character Andrew Steele Jarret, a Texas senator, religious fanatic, and Presidential candidate running on that platform.

​WE know that Octavia Butler wasn’t just predicting the outcome of one, single administration, but what our futures will inevitably look like under the harmful conditions of capitalism. For this special live episode, we are joined by writer, facilitator, Octavia Butler-scholar, pleasure activist and doula adrienne maree brown. adrienne is the co-editor of the anthology, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction for Social Justice Movements with Walidah Imarisha, published by AK Press in 2015. Her latest book is Emergent Strategy, a radical handbook heavily summarizing Octavia Butler’s wisdoms, designed to shape the futures we want to live. Get settled and tune in to our super long-form live episode with adrienne.

Key Questions:
Who was Octavia Butler?
What are the lessons of Acorn, the post-apocalyptic community that was created in Parables?
What does it mean to shape chaos?
How do these books teach us about resilience? survival? Love?
What can people do to practice radical compassion and empathy?
What does it mean to practice humility and create space for everyone when it might also mean that we let in potentially harmful people?

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