senakirfa A.
This is an invitation to Black and African people across the Diaspora;
I wish to gather among you, and (virtually) collectively engage with Octavia E. Butler’s thought-provoking body of work titled, Parable of the Sower.
In the wake of the present, where Black and African lives are imperiled by the h/daunting ramifications of capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and extended branches of evil that harm those lives significantly, it remains at stake to practice being together, to hold onto the lives we wish to live and share, beyond this doom.
In Parable of the Sower, the future—which is situated in our present—is envisioned by Octavia E. Butler through her literary world-making approach, as a HistoFuturist, inciting Butler’s rigorous attention and scrutiny of the lingering past and its present (becoming). Her work propels a future through her careful writings of the world as she knew it, embarking on a current that we share.
By following the parallel timeline of Parable of the Sower, I want to initiate a gathering on the days the chapters
were (/are) written. This offers an intermittent series of daily, monthly, and yearly moments that I would like to use to gather (virtually), to reflect on either what we have read or anything else that feels fitting for that day.
This gathering series of and around Parable of the Sower began on Saturday, July 20, 2024, marking the start of Earthseed: The Book of the Living—told, witnessed, lived, and written by Parable of the Sower’s narrator and protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina. The last chapter of Parable of the Sower was/is written on Sunday, October 10, 2027.
Please let me know if you would like to join by sending an email to: senakirfa@tuta.com
Please reach out as well if you are curious about Parable of the Sower but don’t have access to a physical copy.
May what unravels through the days, months, and years of Octavia Butler’s work and words, remind us & persist of an us, may we be transformed by what we read,
‘the only lasting truth Is Change’ (Parable of the Sower, p.3)
warmest,
senakirfa A.