Sower Trek 24

Walidah Imarisha describes the alternative futures represented in Star Trek and Parable of the Sower as works of Visionary Fiction, “that helps us to understand existing power dynamics, and helps us imagine paths to creating more just futures.”
In this online conversation and creative workshop at 6pm (PST) on Friday 30th August, we’re exploring these two works of Visionary Fiction, both set this year, both imagined in the 1990s, and both (almost prophetically) depicting the challenges and opportunities existing today, from an AfroFuturistic perspective.
In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, the main character has to adapt to a world where the climate crisis has plunged most of the population into extreme poverty and the rich are trying to escape to Mars. The story begins in 2024, where characters reflect on city life: “Lights, progress, growth, all those things we’re too hot and too poor to bother with anymore.”
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Captain Sisko, a character from an altruistic, peace-keeping, post-capitalist organisation from the far future, is transported back in time to the year 2024, to a moment in history described as “one of the watershed events of the 21st century” where the USA “will finally begin correcting the social problems it has struggled with for over a hundred years."
Joining us on our exploration of radical liberation and social justice through Visionary Fiction is Khadijah Carberry and Florence Okoye, hosted by Juice Aleem and Charlotte Bailey.

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Wow! I’m looking forward to watching this! I saw this advertised by SistaSciFi.