The Huntington Library is celebrating Octavia Butler with a special exhibition and conference. In 2008, after Butler died, The Huntington Library became the recipient of her papers and other materials, comprising more than 8,000 items. This new exhibition examines Butler's life and work, features samples of her earliest stories, and will include journal entries, photographs, and first editions of her books. It includes about 100 items that reveal her early years and influences, additionally, it highlights some of the specific themes that repeatedly commanded her attention. The exhibition runs through August 7th, 2017. In conjunction with the exhibit, The Huntington is holding a conference called, "Octavia E. Butler Studies: Convergence of an Expanding Field", which will be held on June 23rd, from 8:30a.m - 5p.m. Inspired by the award-winning author Octavia E. Butler, leading experts in the field will explore the expansive ways Butler’s writing, research, and life foster deeper understanding of the past, present, and possible futures. The conference schedule is here:
9:00 a.m. - Registration & Coffee
10:00 a.m. - Welcome: Steve Hindle (The Huntington) The Octavia E. Butler Papers at The Huntington Sue Hodson (The Huntington) Remarks: Ayana Jamieson (Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network and SUNY, Empire State College) “Mapping Desire: Octavia E. Butler Studies as Palimpsest and Praxis”
Session 1: Fictive Kindred / Seeding the Pattern Facilitators: Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey
Sami Schalk (University of Wisconsin, Madison) “Experience, Research, and Writing: Octavia E. Butler as Author of Disability Literature”
Jenny Terry (Durham University) “Time Bombs, Time Lapse, and Time Capsules in the Fiction of Octavia Butler and the Art of Ellen Gallagher”
Aimee Bahng (Pomona College) “Plasmodial Improprieties: Octavia E. Butler, Slime Molds, and Imagining a Femi-Queer Commons”
12:00 p.m. - Lunch and time to view exhibit in Library West Hall (led by Natalie Russell, Assistant Curator of Literary Collections at The Huntington)
1:30 p.m. - Session 2: Beyond Octavia E. Butler’s Parables Facilitators: Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey
Cassandra L. Jones (University of South Carolina Upstate) “Memory, Resistance, and Liberation: Anyanwu as Lieu de Mémoire in Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist Series"
Gerry Canavan (Marquette University) “Parables of the Trickster”
Shelley Streeby (University of California, San Diego) “Climate Refugees in the Greenhouse World: Archiving Global Warming/Imagining the Future of Climate Change with Octavia E. Butler”
3:15 p.m. - Break
3:30 p.m. - Roundtable Communal Convergence / Question and Answer Session Facilitators: Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey
Sami Schalk, Jenny Terry, Aimee Bahng, Cassandra L. Jones, Gerry Canavan, Shelley Streeby
4:30 p.m. - Closing Remarks Moya Bailey and Ayana Jamieson “Reflecting on the Futures of the Field”
