Octavia’s Brood

Have you read Octavia’s Brood yet? If not, you should. It’s “An anthology of visionary science fiction and speculative fiction written by organizers and activists.”

Scifi + social justice = <3!!!!!

I had the joy of seeing editor/author Walidah Imarisha and author Gabriel Teodros speak at the Seattle Public Library last Wednesday. Their words were so powerful, like Walidah saying “All organizing is science fiction,” and “All of us who are from oppressed communities are walking science fiction,” and Gabriel’s music performance.

“All organizing is science fiction” – Walidah Imarisha

The most common pushback I get when discussing prison abolition with majority white and upper class folks is, “We need prisons for us to be safe,” and “What about the murderers?” and sometimes “But how?”

I understand the desire for specifics and logistics, but they’re distractions.

More important right now is the vision.

Walidah talked about how we often write out a 5-year strategic plan and feel really good about laying out specific, measurable, “achievable” objectives. But we need a 100-year plan, a 500-year plan. What do we want the world to look like for generations to come?

This is what visionary scifi does for us.

There’s LOTS more here to talk about, so I’ll just point to a few resources:

From Walidah’s slideshow at the event:

• Octavia Butler Emergent Strategy Strategic Reader by adrienne maree brown and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
• Transformative Justice Strategic Sci Fi Reader by adrienne maree brown, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Jenna Peters-Golden
• Emergent Strategy Handbook by adrienne maree brown

Other:

• Anything written by Octavia Butler
• More visionary scifi authors: Nalo Hopkinson, Samuel R. Delany, Urusla K. Le Guin
• Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin Kelley
• A World Without Prisons
• Basics on Transformative Justice by Mariame Kaba on her blog, US Prison Culture

Let me know if you have some recommendations to share!

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
― Arundhati Roy

~~~

Not much coding progress, since I don’t have an internet connection at my new apartment yet.

I have finished codeacademy’s Learn the Command Line:

And I’m working on Learn Ruby the Hard Way‘s Command Line Crash Course before starting on its Ruby exercises.

Gotta really start cramming before Ada starts on Sept 21 🙂

Also been busy cramming these into my mouth

Completed Ada Application!

I did it.

On Monday, I submitted my application for Ada Developers Academy.

I read over my responses one more time, clicked submit, then ran off to my last Mail Processing meeting with Black and Pink: Chicago.

At Black and Pink, I got to orient and match 6 people with an LGBTQ-identified pen pal in prison in Illinois, as well as train another volunteer on running the meetings.

Sometimes building community looks like moving out of the way for other folks to take leadership.

…And then making myself valuable to a new community in Seattle.

print by Nikki McClure

If you’re interested in becoming a pen pal through Black and Pink, click here. If you’re in Illinois and interested, email blackandpinkchicago@gmail.com for a different, local process.