Black History Month: Octavia Butler
Today’s inspiring Black artist means as much to me as Prince and Bowie mean to their respective fan bases. Let’s talk about:
I’m one of many people who are just not ready to let go of Octavia Butler, even though she died in 2006. Butler was the first Black female science fiction writer to make it big, like Isaac Asimov-big. In her novels and short stories, Black people are front and center, making critical decisions and generally having epic, high-stakes adventures. One of Butler’s best-known books, “Kindred,” has been adapted as a TV series.
Again, so many reasons to love her work but here are a few:
Her writing is evocative, compelling, and efficiently worded and paced
The characters’ race is a part of the story, but not the whole thing
Her stories often feel inevitable, or as if they were recent history you just hadn’t heard about until now.
Unfortunately, I just found out “Kindred” the TV series has been canceled, but it’s possible another streaming service might pick it up and keep the story going for another season. Like Nnedi Okorafor’s novels, Butler’s other work is also being developed for television, but there’s no word on when they might drop. On the bright side, people are still talking about Butler, in podcasts, old TV interviews uploaded to YouTube, and essays.
Black History Month is winding down, and so is my blog post series on Black artists who inspire me. Stick around: we still have two more days in the month, and two more artists to talk about.
