genre of octavia e. butler books crossword

Genre of octavia e. butler books crossword series#

Minter, from Indigo Arts Alliance, said those conversations have covered important social issues in the state, like land rights for Indigenous people and youth incarceration. Her visits usually include a meeting with community activists to talk about their ongoing projects, and she also has joined in talks and hosted community sing-alongs. That collaboration has resulted in months of events across the state with and without Reagon. (“We were, like, screaming,” said Casselberry.)

Genre of octavia e. butler books crossword series#

Casselberry then shared the plans with Samaa Abdurraqib, executive director of the Maine Humanities Council, who told her the organization was planning a series of events focused on Afrofuturism, including works by Butler. She also knew about the programming that Reagon designed around the opera and thought a fellowship at the college’s McKeen Center for the Common Good would be the right way to support the Parable Path.Įventually, these efforts merged. Casselberry knew about the opera and also wanted to bring it to Bowdoin, but the theater on campus was too small to support the production. Reagon also has a longtime connection with Casselberry, who has been a guitarist and vocalist in her band BIGLovely. Minter started talking with Aimee Petrin, executive and artistic director at Portland Ovations, about whether it might be possible to bring “Parable of the Sower” to Maine as well. Portland Ovations, where Marcia Minter had previously been on the board, helped with that event. Reagon is a longtime friend, and the Minters invited her to perform a concert at the launch. In 2019, Marcia and Daniel Minter founded Indigo Arts Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to the creative cultivation of artists of African descent.

Portland Ovations describes it as “a genre-defying, modern congregational opera that celebrates two centuries of Black music.” Bringing it to Maine took significant funding, coordination, and personal connections. Reagon started working on the opera in 2015, and it has been presented around the world since its premiere in 2017. “Parable of the Sower” has been described as prescient because of the clarity with which Butler envisioned the real-world disasters of the next millennium.Īttendees of a community sing-along with Toshi Reagon and Josette the Newsam at Unitarian Universalist Church in Brunswick on Tuesday. As she fights for survival, she also creates a new belief system for the post-apocalyptic society. The story follows a teenage girl named Lauren Olamina, who has a debilitating sensitivity to other people’s emotions. The author imagined a world in which systemic injustice and global warming had led to social chaos and anarchy. “Her presence brings that and gives people the sense that this can actually happen.”īutler’s “Parable of the Sower” was published in 1993 but opens in the year 2024. “She has a really beautiful ability to articulate the vision in a way that makes people really believe that it’s going to happen, and I think that ability is very powerful,” said Judith Casselberry, an associate professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. Each partner brought different expertise, and all said their work with Reagon and the buildup to the opera has been an energizing and enlightening experience.

The project also has created a unique collaboration among Bowdoin, the Indigo Arts Alliance, Maine Humanities Council, and Portland Ovations.

Reagon also spent the year as a visiting fellow at Bowdoin College, coming to Maine four times to meet with students, artists, and community organizers. The younger Reagon brought not only the opera to Maine but also a program she calls Parable Path, a series of events across the state over the past year that focused on themes in Butler’s landmark novel such as climate change and racial justice. Reagon, whose style ranges from folk to funk to rock, and whose past collaborators include Lenny Kravitz and Ani DiFranco, wrote the music and lyrics with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the renowned all-Black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” that will be presented to a sold-out crowd Friday at Merrill Auditorium by the Indigo Arts Alliance and Portland Ovations. The only lasting truth is change.”įifty or so people had gathered to learn songs from an opera based on Octavia E. Reagon clapped to the beat between their lines: “All that you touch, you change,” they sang. “So make sure you sing very loud and make all the people around you jealous.”Įveryone laughed and gathered close to her as the guitar music started. “This is like the big, last song of the show,” she told the audience.