About the Event

On June 22, 2024, 50+ local creatives joined us in celebration of science fiction writer Octavia Estelle Butler’s life, legacy, and 77th birthday. The event was designed and hosted by Schessa Garbutt of Firebrand at Arlington Garden in Pasadena, CA. The day centered Black & Indigenous rest and imagination through 7 stations including: readings of sci-fi short stories, somatics/napping in the garden, cyanotype sun prints, native plant medicines, and collective writing activities — all in veneration of the major themes in Butler's seminal 'fictional' novel, Parable of the Sower (1993), whose prescient story opens in the summer of 2024 near O.E.B.'s hometown of Pasadena. What might we learn from one another, the land, and our creative ancestors when we meet with intention? The only way to find out was to be together, on the same soil that sprouted Earthseed. It was a magical day.

About Arlington Garden

For more than 40 years, the site of Arlington Garden was a desolate patch of land in Pasadena, designated a staging area for the future construction of a 710 Freeway link. Today, it is a flourishing garden designed to demonstrate that low-water use can still yield a beautiful natural expanse in a densely populated urban setting.  In 2005, the site had 12 mature trees but was otherwise bare. Today it is home to more than 250 trees and thousands of California natives and other plants that are well suited to the region’s Mediterranean climate.

Octavia on Octavia

“Octavia Butler is a hermit, living in the middle of Los Angeles, a pessimist (if she isn’t careful), a feminist, a quiet egotist, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty and drive. She has written Patternmasters, Mind of My Mind, Survivor, Kindred, and Wild Seed. Kindred, among other things, is a rather shocking novel of slavery in early America, which probably should be read by every white American.” —OEB