WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Following a devastating nuclear war, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Lilith Iyapo awakens after 200 years of stasis 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to find herself surrounded by a group of aliens called the Oankali. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These highly intelligent beings want to do something 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they claim will be mutually beneficial: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trade DNA by breeding with humans 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that each species’ genes can fortify the other. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Should Lilith hold on to her ideas of what it means to be human, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or make a leap into the biological unknown? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These questions haunt Octavia Butler’s Dawn, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the first in her trilogy Lilith’s Brood. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A visionary storyteller who upended science fiction, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler built stunning worlds throughout her work– 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and explored dilemmas that keep us awake at night. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Born in 1947, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler grew up shy and introverted in Pasadena, California. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She dreamt up stories from an early age, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and was soon scribbling these scenarios on paper. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 At twelve, she begged her mother for a typewriter 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 after enduring a campy science fiction film called Devil Girl From Mars. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Unimpressed with what she saw, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler knew she could tell a better story. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Much science fiction featured white male heroes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who blasted aliens or were uninvited saviors for brown people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler wanted to write diverse characters 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and bring nuance and depth to the representation of their experiences, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all while exploring mind-bending scenarios. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For Butler, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 imagination was not only for planting the seeds of science fiction– 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but also a strategy for surviving an unjust world on one’s own terms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Typically, her work takes troubling features of the world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 such as discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, or ability, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and invites the reader to contemplate them in new contexts. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of her most beloved novels, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the Parable of the Sower, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 follows this pattern. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as she makes her way through a world ruined by corporate greed, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 inequality, and environmental destruction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As she struggles with hyperempathy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or the ability to feel others’ pain, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Lauren embarks on a quest with a group of refugees to find a place to thrive. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There, they seek to live in accordance with Lauren’s found religion, Earthseed, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is based on the principle 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that humans must adapt to an ever-changing world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Lauren’s quest had roots in a real life event– 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 California Prop 187, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which attempted to deny illegal immigrants fundamental human rights, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 before it was deemed unconstitutional. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler frequently incorporated contemporary news into her writing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In her 1998 sequel to The Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 she wrote of a presidential candidate 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who controls Americans with virtual reality and “shock collars.” 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 His slogan? “Make America great again.” 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 While people have noted her prescience, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler was also interested in re-examining history. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For instance, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Kindred tells the story of a woman 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who is repeatedly pulled back in time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the Maryland plantation of her ancestors. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Early on, she learns that her mission is to save the life of the white man 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who will rape her great grandmother. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If she doesn’t, she herself will cease to exist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This grim dilemma forces Dana to confront the ongoing trauma 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of slavery and sexual violence against Black women. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 With her stories of women who founded new societies, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 time travelers overcoming historical strife, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and interspecies bonding, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler had a profound influence on growing popularity of Afrofuturism. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That’s a movement where Black writers and artists who are inspired by the future 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 produce works that incorporate magic, history, technology and much more. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And today, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Butler’s work remains a powerful reminder 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that imagination can be a tool for real change– 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as well as a rallying call for those who seek other ways to be in the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As Lauren comes to learn in Parable of the Sower, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "All that you touch you Change. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All that you Change Changes you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The only lasting truth is Change.”