Octavia E. Butler Celebration of Arts & Activism Panel Review/ End of the Year Thoughts

by Courtnee Brinker

Going into this panel, I had nothing but high expectations, and coming out of the panel, I felt pleased. It's a known fact: people who read and enjoy Octavia Butler's works are inherently cool. And now I'm one of them. The panel contained a mix of artists and activists, many of who relate their work back to Octavia Butler and are finding ways to use her texts to inspire movements. With a panel chocked full of insightful people, I jotted notes to keep up, but one comment really stuck out to me--no notes required. Junot Díaz (whose credentials are available on wikipedia. Also, Junot, a few girls in my class are hardcore fangirls) said that our subconscious has a way of showing up in the work that we do, and specifically our writing. It was an interesting idea considering many people set out to write about specific issues like racism, feminism, sexism, agism, etc in their writing, but what about the ideas we aren't even thinking about? As frustrating as it can be, writing is so cathartic. As a Spelman student I actively think a lot about feminism and women's roles within texts and in real-world situations, and a lot of that shows up in my writing, but I think after Junot's comment, I am more inclined to regularly journal to see what I'm thinking about when I'm not even aware that I'm thinking. Is my mind ever really off the clock? As we move into the spring/summer/school-less months, I plan to journal for ten minutes a day; I want to know more about my subconscious, and I encourage readers of this blog to try it with me!

On another note, today was the last day of our Butler's Daughter's: Imagining Leadership class. I am particularly thankful for this class and glad to be one of the pioneers of this course because it opened my eyes to an entire field of study (afrofuturism), incredibly talented authors, and my own capabilities to write and produce science fiction with black protagonists. I've always been interested in science-fiction books and movies like Gattaca and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, for example, but it never occurred to me that I could be the one telling those stories, and that the people in the stories could look like me. Octavia is correct when she writes, "all you touch, you change," because this course has enlightened me in so many unexpected ways, and moved me into long-term action as a reader, writer and thinker.
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To our scarily-patient instructors Dr. Stanley and Professor Due, many thanks.