![]() Toshi Reagon sees Butler's writing as inspirational guides to thought and action. It is less a faith than it is a codification of the things that survivors need to survive - the beliefs that will keep you going, the beliefs that will keep you fighting." "I am not a practitioner of Earthseed myself," says Jemisin, "but I see the appeal of it. Some readers have taken Butler's work and the character Olamina's concept of Earthseed as spiritual texts. "I'm needing that hope, I'm needing that encouragement, that reminder that these things go in cycles and that the cycle will at some point end and we will push back." "In those books, Butler goes through the whole issue of trying to live within a society that is disrespectful of your needs, even your bodily autonomy," Jemisin observes. Jemisin sees many parallels between Butler's imagining of 2024 and today's social and political climate. Jemisin, who began reading Butler as a young woman and wrote the introduction to the most recent edition of Parable of the Sower. They include four-time Hugo Award winner N.K. ![]() But fans also find a lot of comfort and solidarity in Butler's vision of resistance. There's a lot of sheer brutality in Butler's narrative. Lincoln Center Cast members performing in the Parable of the Sower opera. "And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it." "They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable," Butler said. As in Butler's work, the Reagons' music references centuries of African-American history and culture, moving back and forth between the past, present and future with ease.Īs Octavia Butler told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1993, her Parable novels were about the use and abuse of power in a broken society. Luckily, the Reagons got free reign from Butler herself, who died in 2006. And I was like, 'Woo hoo, I'm going to go teach at Princeton for Toni Morrison - yay, it's so cool!'" she laughs.Įventually, mother and daughter began writing their own musical interpretation of Parable of the Sower. Mom was really busy at the time, and she was like, 'Maybe Toshi can do half the classes!' I was like, you know, young in my career. "It's an opportunity for an artist to teach at Princeton for a semester. ![]() "Toni Morrison asked my mother to come to Princeton to do the Princeton Atelier," Reagon explains. Their first joint opportunity to explore Butler's work through music came in the 1990s. Toshi Reagon says she and her mother share a deep love of Octavia Butler's writing. The opera version of Parable of the Sower was created by singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon and her mother, activist and singer Bernice Johnson Reagon, who founded the ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock and is now retired. The words the chorus sings are the building blocks of a new religion that Olamina has envisioned, called Earthseed. Lincoln Center Singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon created the Parable of the Sower opera with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon.Īgainst all this chaos, the main character, Lauren Oya Olamina, hungers to shape a very different reality. In the sequel, Parable of the Talents, an authoritarian politician promises to "make America great again." (It's a phrase that Butler observed Ronald Reagan using on the campaign trail during his successful 1980 presidential run.) There's a climate crisis driving people out of their homes. They're learning a chorus that includes the opening words of Octavia Butler's novel. ![]() On a warm recent evening in Manhattan, we're sitting at rehearsal amidst 170 community singers who are part of the Parable performance at New York's Lincoln Center alongside professional musicians. This Afrofuturistic book about a dystopian America set in our time now seems positively prophetic - and a new musical interpretation of Butler's novel is touring the country. Octavia Butler's sci-fi novel Parable of the Sower was published 30 years ago, in 1993.
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