Recap of Monday's live Q&A with Dr. Pergadia

A big thank you to everyone who attended our live Q&A with Dr. Pergadia last night! It was a lively discussion and appreciated by so many. If you missed it or would like to revisit it, you may watch the Zoom recording:

https://zoom.us/rec/share/_e0vKLKp5CBIE6_P1BvjZ-15Q6rBeaa80HJK-fUPyEwDoU3XT0QtdbbjUkXuGu1u

Password: 1w*t&31!

We discussed everything from hyperempathy to current and historical events, slow violence to religion, and several books and authors were mentioned. Here are their links (if they are available for request through the Municipal Library Consortium, they will link directly to our catalog):

-brown, adrienne m., and Walidah Imarisha. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. AK, 2015.

-Brown, Wendy. Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. Zone, 2010.

-Butler, Octavia. All books owned by the MLC.

-Gumbs, Alexis P. M Archive. Duke UP, 2018.

-Jemisin, N.K. All books owned by the MLC.

-Noble, Safiya U. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York UP, 2018.

If you would like revisit Dr. Pergadia's initial presentation, you may watch the videos here.

We will also have a general book discussion on Parable of the Sower tomorrow, Wednesday, July 1, at 3 p.m. If you would like to attend, please email lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org to receive an invitation to register.

Again, we have so much gratitude for our strong and engaged community. We love hearing your voices and thoughts, and we look forward to going ever deeper as we start Parable of the Talents in July.

Registration is still open for our Earthseed events next week!

Our live Q&A with Dr. Pergadia regarding her presentation will be held on Monday, June 29, at 7 p.m. In order to attend, please email Lindsay at lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org to receive the Zoom meeting invitation to register. If you are unable to attend the event but still wish to ask Dr. Pergadia a question, please email your questions to Lindsay as well. We will be recording the meeting, so you will be able to view it afterwards. If you haven't done so yet, Dr. Pergadia's presentation is available to view on our Adult Summer Reading blog. She highlights some intriguing facets to examine the novels!

A general discussion about Parable of the Sower will be held on the following Wednesday, July 1, at 3 p.m. If you would like to attend that, again, please email lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org to receive a separate Zoom invitation to register. We encourage you to attend both if you are able!

Cheers and enjoy this fascinating discussion of a remarkable book!

Parable of the Sower Gets Graphic

Calling all graphic novel enthusiasts! Interested in getting a visual take on our reading this summer? Just this year, Damian Duffy and John Jennings published a graphic novel adaptation for Parable of the Sower. The pair created an adaptation of Octavia Butler's standalone novel, Kindred (originally published in 1979--the adaptation came out in 2017), AND they have plans for Parable of the Talents as well. Something to look forward to indeed!

John Jennings has an illustrious career in comics. He has worked to highlight representation and inclusiveness in a largely white industry with a focus on Black speculative art. It is fitting that he was tapped by the publisher Abrams to be the artist for Octavia Butler's work. You can learn more about his career in this feature from Publisher's Weekly.

For those interested in a peek into the team's creation process, Tanya Ballard Brown of NPR's Codeswitch, highlighted the publication of the Kindred graphic novel adaptation in 2017. 

You can find their work in both print and digital format at the library.

Octavia Butler's Impact on Writers and Artists

Many thanks to our reader and Octavia Butler enthusiast, Byron Kerman, for sharing this article from Literary Hub about the far-reaching influence and impact Butler has had on so many writers and artists: "The Grand Cultural Influence of Octavia Butler." It is really touching to read some beloved creators' reflections on Butler's work and career, the path she helped pave and the encouragement of her presence as a Black woman in science fiction.

Registration is open for next week's events!

As a reminder, Dr. Samantha Pergadia's presentation is posted on our blog, and you can view it at your convenience (it is divided into three parts): Parable of the Sower: View Dr. Samantha Pergadia's presentation now!

Our live Q&A with Dr. Pergadia regarding her presentation will be held on Monday, June 29, at 7 p.m. To register for the event, please email lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org to receive a Zoom invitation. If you are unable to attend the event but still wish to ask Dr. Pergadia a question, you may also email this address with your question. We will be recording the meeting, so you will be able to view it afterwards.

We will have a general book discussion on Parable of the Sower on the following Wednesday, July 1, at 3 p.m. Please email lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org to receive the book discussion Zoom meeting invitation. Everyone is welcome to attend both the Q&A and the following book discussion!

We realize this is a new direction for UCPL's Big Book Challenge as we move entirely online this year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email or call 314-727-3150 for more information.

Happy birthday, Octavia Butler!

From https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/entertainment/gallery/octavia-butler/index.html

On this day in 1947, Octavia Butler was born in Pasadena, California. She would be 73 today. We mourn her stories that had yet to be written, but we celebrate the legacy she left this world. If you have a moment, take some time to scroll through 16 images of Butler's life and work (https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/entertainment/gallery/octavia-butler/index.html), posted by CNN.com on the anniversary of her birthday two years ago. They include some notes she took while writing the Earthseed books! Happy birthday, Octavia!

New Podcast on Parable of the Sower!

Last Friday, writer and activist adrienne maree brown announced on the podcast she co-hosts with her sister (How to Survive the End of the World) that she will be pairing up with composer Toshi Reagon for a new podcast called Octavia's Parables! They will discuss the Earthseed books chapter-by-chapter, episod-by-episode, and the first episode is due to air next week on Octavia Butler's birthday (June 22)! brown recently wrote about it on her blog. You can listen to Octavia's Parables as well as find out which podcast platforms host it here.

adrienne maree brown is an alumna of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, the same workshop Octavia Butler attended so early in her career. brown co-edited the speculative fiction collection, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (available on Hoopla), with Walidah Imarisha. You can find more of brown's work in our catalog here.

Among Toshi Reagon's many accomplishments as a musician and composer is her adaptation of Parable of the Sower into an opera! It is an incredible experience and one of the most moving pieces of music I've experienced in recent years. I highly recommend following Reagon to find a viewing in the future. You can find more of Reagon's work in our catalog here.

Parable of the Sower: View Dr. Samantha Pergadia's presentation now!

We are so lucky to have Dr. Samantha Pergadia of Southern Methodist University as our first presenter for our Big Book Challenge this year! In these three videos, she discusses themes in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. Please note there are three parts to this presentation (posted below), and our live Q&A with Dr. Pergadia will occur on June 29 at 7 p.m. (Stay tuned for more details!) At the end of Part 3, Dr. Pergadia gives us a few questions to consider while we read: -Can a slow form, like the novel, help us represent and respond to forms of slow violence? -How does Parable of the Sower link vision to moral community through the condition of hyperempathy? -What can reading or writing do in apocalyptic or crisis times? How does this work in the novel and your reading of the novel?

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

If you are unable to attend Dr. Pergadia's live Q&A but would still like to ask a question, please email lbeckman@ucitylibrary.org with your questions. We will be recording the event so you will be able to view it afterwards!

Infinite Jest: View Michael O'Bryan's Keynote Speech Now!

Washington University lecturer and Infinite Jest enthusiast Michael O'Bryan was kind enough to come by UCPL last week and speak to an empty auditorium (and our camera) about David Foster Wallace's encyclopedic novel. The presentation video is broken into four parts so you can watch it all at once, or break it up over a few days. Check it out here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Octavia Butler at the Huntington Library

From https://www.huntington.org/octavia-butler

Now that your interest is piqued from last Friday's post about the Octavia Butler Archive at Huntington Library, check out this article announcing their exhibition, "Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories" (https://www.huntington.org/octavia-butler). Per the article, Huntington Library acquired Butler's papers in 2008, which amounted to over 8,000 items! Butler was in the habit of writing herself motivational notes along with the drafts of her stories and novels, making her archive a particularly lively one. 

Perhaps we need to take a roadtrip of our own to California....

Octavia Butler Featured on NPR

From https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/07/10/535879364/octavia-butler-writing-herself-into-the-story

Happy Friday! We hope you are settling into our first Big Book on the Earthseed path, Parable of the Sower. Three years ago, Code Switch produced a feature on Octavia Butler for NPR's Morning Edition (https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/07/10/535879364/octavia-butler-writing-herself-into-the-story). The feature covers an exhibit of the Octavia Butler Archive at Huntington Library in California--much of the photographs you'll see of Butler's notes throughout our summer blog posts here are housed at the Huntington. If you have time this weekend, listen to the 7-minute story that aired on the radio. It includes clips of Butler herself talking about her young life and aspirations of becoming a writer. As we learn more about Butler's personal life, let's think about how her experiences impacted the Earthseed books we read this summer.

Take root among the stars!

From https://clockshop.org/project/about-octavia-e-butler/

Welcome to University City Public Library's Big Book Challenge--the Earthseed path! In case you were wondering, "Earthseed" is the series title for Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (which we'll read and discuss in June) and Parable of the Talents (which we'll read and discuss in July). Since we are taking our summer reading challenge completely online this year, you'll want to stay tuned to this blog for updates on our program and juicy tidbits about our books and authors.

I want to note a few items at the outset of our challenge. If you look at the very top of this blog, you will see a tab for "Earthseed Reading Guide." There you'll find some introductory material regarding Octavia Butler and this series specifically, as well as other library resources that might help inform your reading.

Add a little fun to your reading this summer! Register yourself on Beanstack, where you will earn badges for your reading accomplishments. Go to ucitylibrary.beanstack.org/--you'll get a badge just for signing up!

We are also excited to welcome our speakers, Dr. Samantha Pergadia in June and Dr. Rebecca Wanzo in July. We want to give you as much opportunity as possible to engage with our speakers in this virtual format, so we will conduct our speaker programs this way:

1) We will both email and post here a link to each speaker's presentation video on the 15th of June and July.

2) Watch the videos at your convenience before the live Q&A events with our speakers at the end of each month and jot down your questions!

3-a) If you can attend the live Q&A events, you will need to register to receive an invitation to a Zoom meeting. You will be able to interact with our presenters and other readers then!

3-b) If you are unable to attend the live Q&A events, you may still ask questions and email them to us so that they will be asked during the event.

4) The live Q&A events will be recorded so that all participants may review it afterwards if they wish.

The live Q&A events will center around each presentation given by our scholars, though your knowledge of that month's book will still be crucial and will inform the conversation. We will have an alternate book discussion in the the afternoon of the Wednesday following the live event, which will focus just on the month's book. Everyone is more than welcome to join both events if they are able!

We are excited to experience the online version of UCPL's Big Book Challenge with you! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or comments in the coming months.