LIVE from NYPL: Positive Obsession: Happy Birthday, Octavia E. Butler
Location
Writers, performers, and scholars celebrate the sci-fi legend on what would have been her 74th birthday.
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Join LIVE from NYPL and a packed lineup of special guests to celebrate Octavia E. Butler on what would have been her 74th birthday. In 2006, writers, performers, editors, and friends gathered at The New York Public Library to honor Butler, whose untimely death at the age of 58 had cut short one of the great careers in American letters. Fifteen years later, as the Library of America releases the first of its Butler collections, LIVE from NYPL pays tribute to her work with an evening of talks, readings, and performances. Featuring readings of fiction and nonfiction collected in the Library of America volume, alongside reflections about her as a friend, as a writer, and as an inspiration, plus a very special musical performance. Full program below.
PROGRAM
- Introduction—Michelle D. Commander, Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center of the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery
- Reading—Hanif Abdurraqib, "Positive Obsession"
- Reflection—Steven Barnes, author and screenwriter
- Tribute—Ayana Jamieson, Founder, Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network
- Performance: "Brown Girl"—Be Steadwell
- Tribute—Jenny Baum, Supervising Librarian, Jefferson Market, and Siva Ramakrishnan, Associate Director, Young Adult Services, New York Public Library
- Reading—Namwali Serpell, from "The Evening and the Morning and the Night"
GET THE BOOK
- Borrow: NYPL Catalog
- E-Book app: SimplyE, available on iOS and Android
- Purchase: The Library Shop — proceeds benefit the New York Public Library
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And be sure to check out the Library Shop's Octavia Butler Collection!
RECOMMENDED READING
- Michelle Commander, Jenny Baum, and Siva Ramakrishnan all recommend Kindred (NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare)
- Be Steadwell suggests Parable of the Sower (NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare) and the essay "Positive Obsession" (NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare)
- Namwali Serpell can't get enough of the story "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" (NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare)
- Ayana Jamieson recommends Lynell George's new book A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler (NYPL Catalog). Some other favorites are Fledgling (NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare) and the series Seed to Harvest (NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare).
Further Resources:
- Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network
- Octavia E. Butler papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, California
- The Octavia E. Butler Estate
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Hanif Abdurraquib is a writer from the east side of Columbus, Ohio.
Steven Barnes is a New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter, and educator who has written more than thirty science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels. The NAACP Image Award winner has also written for The Outer Limits, The New Twilight Zone, Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, and Ben 10: Alien Force. He has been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace Awards. Barnes has lectured at UCLA, Mensa, Pasadena JPL, taught at Seattle University, hosted the "Hour 25" radio show on KPFK, and has been Kung Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine. An avid yogi and martial artist with three black belts, Steven is also a pioneer in the human potential movement, creating the groundbreaking "Lifewriting" creativity system, making writers the heroes of their own stories.
Jenny Baum has contributed to the article "Librarian Presence in Virtual Worlds" in the Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments. In her free time, she has been known to watch too much reality television.
Michelle D. Commander is associate director and curator of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is the author of Afro-Atlantic Flight, Avidly Reads Passages, and the editor of Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition.
Ayana Jamieson is a Depth Psychologist and is a founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community founded in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia Butler's life and work while creating new works inspired by Butler's legacy. The Legacy Network grew out of Ayana's research for her doctoral research on Butler's life. Her dissertation is entitled, 'Certainty of the Flesh': A Biomythographical Reading of Octavia E. Butler's Fictions. She is an organizer, educator, and teaches ethnic studies courses at California State University Polytechnic, Pomona.
Siva Ramakrishnan is a teacher, library professional, and science fiction enthusiast. Her favorite Butler work is Kindred.
Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer and a Professor of English at Harvard University. She is the author of Seven Modes of Uncertainty (Harvard, 2014), The Old Drift (Hogarth, 2019), and Stranger Faces (Transit, 2020).
Be Steadwell is a musician, filmmaker, storyteller from Washington DC. In her live performances, she utilizes looping, vocal layering and beat boxing to compose her songs on stage. Be's original music features earnest lyricism, and affirming LGBTQ content. Be's goal as a musician is to make other black girls, queers, introverts and generally marginalized weirdos feel seen and loved.
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Positive Obsession: Happy Birthday, Octavia E. Butler, the Richard B. Salomon Distinguished Lecture, is made possible by an endowment established by family and friends of the late Richard B. Salomon.
LIVE from NYPL is made possible by the support of Library patrons and friends, as well as by the continuing generosity of Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.
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Text Credits
“Positive Obsession” copyright 1989 © by Octavia E. Butler. First published as “Birth of a Writer” in Essence magazine.
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night" copyright 1987 © by Octavia E. Butler. First published Omni magazine.
Photo Credits
Octavia Butler, portraits (Photos 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 18) © Miriam Berkley. Cannot be reproduced without permissions from the photographer. For alternative images and questions regarding usage, please contact Miriam Berkley (miriamberkley.com).
Be Steadwell and Black to the Future photos used with permission of Princeton Department of African American Studies
Octavia E. Butler Portrait, c. 1962, Box 264 (7174). Octavia E. Butler Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Butler, Octavia E. Commonplace book (large). April 14, 1988, Box 180 (3237). Octavia E. Butler Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Used with permission of the Octavia E. Butler Estate.
Butler, Octavia E. Notes on writing, before 2007. Box 84 (1673), Octavia E. Butler Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Used with permission of the Octavia E. Butler Estate.
Butler, Octavia E. Notes on writing. c. 1970–1995, Box 84 (1674). Octavia E. Butler Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Used with permission of the Octavia E. Butler Estate.
Butler, Octavia E. Notes on Duryea-Gode disease, from notecards on scientific subjects, before 2007. Box 155 (7174). Octavia E. Butler Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Used with permission of the Octavia E. Butler Estate.
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