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Following a devastating nuclear war,

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Lilith Iyapo awakens
after 250 years of stasis

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to find herself surrounded by a group 
of aliens called the Oankali.

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These highly evolved beings
want to trade DNA

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by breeding with humans

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so that each species’ genes 
can diversify and fortify the other.

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The only alternative they offer is 
sterilization of the entire human race.

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Should humanity take the leap into 
the biological unknown,

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or hold on to its identity and perish?

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Questions like this haunt 
Octavia Butler’s Dawn,

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the first in her trilogy Lilith’s Brood.

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A visionary storyteller who 
upended science fiction,

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Butler built stunning worlds 
throughout her work–

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and explored dilemmas that keep 
us awake at night.

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Born in 1947,

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Butler grew up shy and introverted in 
Pasadena, California.

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She dreamt up stories from an early age,

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and was soon scribbling these 
scenarios on paper.

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At twelve, she begged her mother 
for a typewriter

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after enduring a campy science 
fiction film called Devil Girl From Mars.

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Unimpressed with what she saw,

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Butler knew she could tell a better story.

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Much science fiction features 
white male heroes

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who blast aliens or become 
saviors of brown people.

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Butler wanted to write diverse characters
for diverse audiences.

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She brought nuance and depth to the 
representation of their experiences.

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For Butler,

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imagination was not only for planting 
the seeds of science fiction–

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but also a strategy for surviving an 
unjust world on one’s own terms.

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Her work often takes troubling 
features of the world

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such as discrimination on the basis of 
race, gender, class, or ability,

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and invites the reader to contemplate 
them in new contexts.

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One of her most beloved novels,

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the Parable of the Sower,

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follows this pattern.

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It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina

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as she makes her way through a near-future
California, ruined by corporate greed,

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inequality, and environmental destruction.

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As she struggles with hyperempathy,

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or a condition in the novel that 
causes her to feel others’ pain,

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and less often, their pleasure.

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Lauren embarks on a quest with a group 
of refugees to find a place to thrive.

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There, they seek to live in accordance 
with Lauren’s found religion, Earthseed,

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which is based on the principle

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that humans must adapt to an 
ever-changing world.

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Lauren’s quest had roots 
in a real life event–

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California Prop 187,

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which attempted to deny undocumented
immigrants fundamental human rights,

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before it was deemed unconstitutional.

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Butler frequently incorporated 
contemporary news into her writing.

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In her 1998 sequel to The Parable of the 
Sower, Parable of the Talents,

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she wrote of a presidential candidate

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who controls Americans with virtual 
reality and “shock collars.”

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His slogan? “Make America great again.”

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While people have noted her prescience,

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Butler was also interested in 
re-examining history.

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For instance,

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Kindred tells the story of a woman
who is repeatedly pulled back in time

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to the Maryland plantation 
of her ancestors.

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Early on, she learns that her mission 
is to save the life of the white man

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who will rape her great grandmother.

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If she doesn’t save him, 
she herself will cease to exist.

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This grim dilemma forces Dana to 
confront the ongoing trauma

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of slavery and sexual violence 
against Black women.

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With her stories of women 
founding new societies,

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time travelers overcoming 
historical strife,

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and interspecies bonding,

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Butler had a profound influence on 
the growing popularity of Afrofuturism.

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That’s a cultural movement where 
Black writers and artists

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who are inspired by the past, present,
and future,

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produce works that incorporate magic, 
history, technology and much more.

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As Lauren comes to learn in 
Parable of the Sower,

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"All that you touch you Change.

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All that you Change Changes you.

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The only lasting truth is Change.”