Passing the Torch: The Next Chapter for the OEB Literary Society

The Octavia E. Butler Literary Society is one of those seeds I wanted to sow, water, weed and then watch someone else grow to maturity. 

In 2013, I asked the two most prominent scholars of Butler's work, Drs. Greg Hampton and Conseula Francis, to meet with me at the American Literature Association gathering in Boston. I proposed to them that we start the OEB Literary Society. They agreed and we set about building a network, a website, and some reason for being. While we weren't sure what would happen, we knew it would be incredible. 
 
The most exciting things to come out of these years have been the three conferences we held. I owe great thanks to Matt Mullins, Associate Professor of English at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, for helping lay the initial foundation. Matt and I met with famed speculative fiction author Tananarive Due and Dr. Claire Curtis, Consuela's colleague at the College of Charleston, to determine what would be different about our group. We knew we wanted a literary social and intellectual meeting place that could be accessed by any Butler reader. One of the things that made that first conference at Spelman College in 2016 so special was that we had a group of high school students as presenters. Their teachers rented a van and drove them from North Carolina to Atlanta and I arranged for them to stay in the dorms. Those young people had their first experience as scholars of Butler as they shared what they'd learned from reading Parable of the Sower with academics and college students. We also had a presenter who had never written an academic paper so Matt in particular worked with her to shape her thoughts so that she could share how reading Butler had changed her. We treated the non-academics like any other scholars of Butler and we could not have been happier. We were succeeding at building a cross-roads of sorts, a place where theory could meet practice and not engage in combat but actually coexist. 
 
The 2018 conference featured the phenom Toshi Reagon who'd worked with her mom Bernice Johnson Reagon to compose an opera based on Parable of the Sower. Our fledgling--pun intended--society could not afford to bring the opera to Spelman so Toshi took pity on us and came and did a one-woman show where she sang excerpts and told the story of how she came to convince Octavia that Parable also had a musical story to tell. That too was magical. 
 
Life and the pandemic ushered the 2021 conference to a homebase in St. Paul, MN and on to zoom connection where yet other "only because it's Octavia Butler" connections occurred. Dr. Ed Chang, Associate Professor at Ohio University, helped me take the society to the next level when we actually partnered with community activists in the Twin Cities who were responsible for planning half the conference. That year we alternated between traditional academic and what we called "Community" sessions all on line. We'd have one presentation of papers and then next would be a creative and interactive presentation courtesy of local activists who were using Butler's work. We were also pleased to feature artwork from a student whose art class at St. Catherine University had participated in their Butler themed Integrated Learning Series. We had more than one thousand people register to view the zoom sessions from all over the world. And, once again, Toshi stepped in to lend her power and energy. She and her band recorded a show featuring some songs from the opera that was broadcast only to registered participants via Vimeo. Then, she did a live talk-back. Did I tell you that incredible things happen when you get involved with Butler's work? 
 
Now a decade has passed since I sat in that room with Greg and Conseula. They have both become ancestors and I have been waiting for a descendent to come and take the society into its next dimension. That person has finally arrived and I am excited, proud, and grateful for what is to come. I have always known who I am. I am a sower and reading and working and living in Octavia's work has only deepened that identity for me. 

The Octavia E. Butler Literary Society is one of those seeds I sowed, watered, weeded, and now will watch someone else grow maturity. 
 
Tarshia L. Stanley, PhD
Founding/Past President
OEB Literary Society