Walidah Imarisha

This had been sitting on my shelves unread for far too long because of my complicated feelings about anthologies, But once I finally picked this up, I was glad that I did. Like any anthology there were stories I loved and stories I failed to connect to, but the theme "exploring the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change" is something I was deeply into.

Favorite stories were "the river" by adrienne maree brown (I really need to read more of her work soon!) and Tananarive Due's essay on Octavia Butler.… (meer)

Whenever we envision a world without war, prisons, or capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought 20 of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. These visionary tales span genres—sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism—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. Also features essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.

"Those concerned with justice and liberation must always persuade the mass of people that a better world is possible. Our job begins with speculative fictions that fire society's imagination and its desire for change. In adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha's visionary conception, and by its activist-artists' often stunning acts of creative inception, Octavia's Brood makes for great thinking and damn good reading. The rest will be up to us." —Jeff Chang, Who We Be: The Colorization of America

“Conventional exclamatory phrases don’t come close to capturing the essence of what we have here in Octavia’s Brood. One part sacred text, one part social movement manual, one part diary of our future selves telling us, ‘It’s going to be okay, keep working, keep loving.’ Our radical imaginations are under siege and this text is the rescue mission. It is the new cornerstone of every class I teach on inequality, justice, and social change....This is the text we’ve been waiting for.” —Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier

"Octavia once told me that two things worried her about the future of humanity: The tendency to think hierarchically, and the tendency to place ourselves higher on the hierarchy than others. I think she would be humbled beyond words that the fine, thoughtful writers in this volume have honored her with their hearts and minds. And that in calling for us to consider that hierarchical structure, they are not walking in her shadow, nor standing on her shoulders, but marching at her side." —Steven Barnes, Lion’s Blood

“Never has one book so thoroughly realized the dream of its namesake. Octavia's Brood is the progeny of two lovers of Octavia Butler and their belief in her dream that science fiction is for everybody.... Butler could not wish for better evidence of her touch changing our literary and living landscapes. Play with these children, read these works, and find the children in you waiting to take root under the stars!” —Moya Bailey and Ayana Jamieson, Octavia E. Butler Legacy

“Like [Octavia] Butler's fiction, this collection is cartography, a map to freedom.” —dream hampton, filmmaker and Visiting Artist at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts

Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator, and spoken word artist. She is the author of the poetry collectionScars/Stars and facilitates writing workshops at schools, community centers, youth detention facilities, and women's prisons.

adrienne maree brown is a 2013 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow writing science fiction in Detroit, Michigan. She received a 2013 Detroit Knight Arts Challenge Award to run a series of Octavia Butler–based writing workshops.

-Amazon description… (meer)

When I walked into a local bookstore and saw an anthology of short stories inspired by and dedicated to Octavia Butler, I had to buy and read it immediately. And it did not disappoint! I love seeing the diverse and unique worlds the authors bring to life in each of the short stories. My only problem with this book is that I want most of the short stories to be full-length novels. The authors set up such interesting worlds and start the characters on amazing journeys that I want to see where the story takes them! Some of the stories don't need to be grown into full novels, but, I mean, I for sure wouldn't turn it down!!

I also loved the essays at the end. The one about Star Wars brings up some very good points that we should all probably be thinking about. And the essay about Change in Butler's works put something I'd been noticing and thinking about in coherent and easy to understand terms. It was also fantastic to read about Butler from someone who knew her when she was alive. RIP Octavia, but wherever you are, I hope you know your legacy lives on.… (meer)

Read approx. first half of the collection, including stories by David F. Walker, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Walidah Imarisha, Autumn Brown, Alixa Garcia, Mia Mingus, and authors quoted below. I didn't finish the collection but that's not a reflection on the quality of the stories, only my headspace and reading taste at the time (lots of MG fiction and graphic novels).

Quotes

But then again, history had shown conclusively that the American public didn't need a complicated explanation as much as they needed a clear enemy to blame. (Revolution Shuffle, Bao Phi, 11)

it wasn't their fault there were so many of them. hipsters and entrepreneurs were complicated locusts. they ate up everything in sight, but they meant well. (The River, adrienne maree brown, 27)

...the opportunity available among the ruins of other peoples' lives.
she wasn't much on politics, but she hated the shifts in the city, the way it was fading as it filled with people who didn't know how to see it. she knew what was coming, what always came with pioneers: strip malls and sameness. (28)

Preparing for the worst does not make it hurt any less. (The Long Memory, Morrigan Phillips, 63)

"Memories are supposed to be shared. It is what gives them power....Perhaps it is time the people remember for themselves." (71)

"Yes, time travelers always say they understand. Your ego is a problem." (Lalibela, Gabriel Teodros, 131)

[Read to end of "Little Brown Mouse" by Tunde Olaniran, p. 144]… (meer)