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<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060228052311.02a21008@freedomarchives.org.0" width=600 height=300 alt="Octavia E. Butler collage">
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</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFF00">PLEASE, SEND
THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!</font><font size=3> <br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><a href="#event2">
Remembrances</a> <a href="#event3">M. Asli Dukan</a>
<a href="#event4">Steven Barnes</a> <a href="#event5">Harlan Ellison</a>
<a href="#event6">Jane Jewell and Robin Bailey of SFWA</a> <br>
Greetings! <br><br>
It is with deep sorrow that we announce that another GIANT in our
community has passed. Ms. Octavia Estelle Butler, brilliant master of
sci-fi, fell outside her house in Lake Forest Park, during what neighbors
thought was a stroke. A neighbor's kid found her outside her house. They
rushed her to a Northwest hospital, and found that blood had pooled in
her brain, they operated but she passed away on Saturday. She was 58.
<br><br>
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Imagenation, who’s mission is to present diverse images of people from
the African Diaspora, feels a special loss because of Ms. Butler's
commitment to creating alternative perspectives of Black people, in a
world full of negative stereotypes. We encourage all to purchase her many
books and keep her in your hearts and memories. <br><br>
Below is a brief history of the life and times of Ms. Octavia E. Butler
followed by warm words from her closest friends. We begin the praises
with independent filmmaker Asli Dukan whose upcoming film; INVISIBLE
UNIVERSE: A HISTORY OF BLACKNESS IN SPECULATIVE FICTION will be the last
documentary film to feature Ms. Butler. <br><br>
Although Octavia E. Butler is no longer with us physically, her books and
portrayals of Black people will live forever. <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>(Written by Gregory Gates for
Imagenation)</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br><br>
Sincerely yours,<br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060228052311.02a21008@freedomarchives.org.2" width=2864 height=248 alt="K and G pic">
<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Moikgantsi Kgama, Founder
& Gregory Gates, Executive Producer, Imagenation<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.yszdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imagenation.us%2Fpages%2Fmain.htm">
Imagenation: Cinema and Music for the people</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">
Remembrances</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
About Octavia E. Butler <br><br>
For more than 30 years, Seattle science-fiction novelist Octavia E.
Butler dreamed up fantastic worlds and religions, made-up creatures and
futuristic plots. Then, in her stylistic prose, she used them to tackle
the social issues she was most passionate about. <br><br>
"Parable of the Talents," a futuristic story about a utopian
community ravaged by civil war, explored modern-day issues of
intolerance, the growing gap between rich and poor, and environmentalism.
In her first novel, "Kindred," she plunged into racial issues
when a modern-day character was transported into the body of a pre-Civil
War slave. <br><br>
In 1995, she won a $295,000 MacArthur Fellowship, known as the
"genius grant." In 2000, she received the Nebula Award for her
novel "Parable of the Talents." The Nebula award is science
fiction's highest prize. <br><br>
Though she was a giant in the science-fiction world, Ms. Butler was such
a private person that even her closest friends said they knew little
about her. <br><br>
She was funny, with a dark, dry, self-deprecating wit. <br><br>
Ms. Butler, who never married, described herself this way in 1999:
"I'm also uncomfortably asocial — a hermit in the middle of Seattle
— a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist,
an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty
and drive." <br><br>
In a 1999 interview, Ms. Butler told a Seattle Times reporter that she
had been a tall, socially awkward child in Pasadena, Calif., spending
much of her time in the public library and sending manuscripts to
publishers when she was only 12 or 13. <br><br>
"I needed to write," she said then. "Writing was literally
all I had consistently. ... I used to give up writing like some people
would give up smoking." <br><br>
Ms. Butler kept that hard-working intensity as an adult, her friends
said. But even in her success, she remained grounded. She bought a house
with her MacArthur Fellowship money and traveled mostly to lecture about
writing. <br><br>
An only child, Ms. Butler grew up in Southern California and moved to
Seattle in 1999, after her mother's death. She studied at Pasadena City
College and California State University, Los Angeles, before
participating in the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop
in 1970. <br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.zszdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfwa.org%2Fmembers%2Fbutler%2F">
Octavia E. Butler Home Page</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">M. Asli
Dukan</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.9pf5zsbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.invisibleuniversedoc.com">
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060228052311.02a21008@freedomarchives.org.3" width=165 height=136 alt="Asli pic">
</a> <br>
M. Asli Dukan <br><br>
Octavia Estelle Butler had a tremendous influence on me. As a teenager, I
was fascinated with all things science fiction. I read books and watched
countless movies, but with the nagging reminder that I was not
represented (Black and Female) in the genre, practically at all. This
changed the day I found Dawn, a book in the Xenogenesis series by Octavia
Butler. My hand was drawn towards the book as if by magic. I initially
couldn't tell that the book had Black characters because the cover I saw
did not represent the main character as she was written, as an African
American female. <br><br>
Maybe I had heard about Octavia somewhere, like a whisper on the wind,
maybe not. It all doesn't really matter now, the important point is, is
that Octavia Butler existed. If she did not someone would have had to
invent her. But I am grateful that she did exist. The complexities and
intelligence of this woman would have not been as meaningful, if she
weren't a real living human being. Her books not only represented African
Americans in a genre that has erased our presence from the past and the
future, but she wrote of stories and characters that challenged what it
meant to be young or old, woman or man, black or white and alien or
human. <br><br>
Working on my documentary, I have had opportunity to meet and talk with
Octavia and to let her know what kind of positive influence she had on me
and the directions I am taking with my own work. I am grateful for that
and will cherish the memories that I have of her. <br><br>
M. Asli Dukan is the Executive Director of The Invisible Universe
Foundation and the producer/director of the soon to be released
documentary film INVISIBLE UNIVERSE: A HISTORY OF BLACKNESS IN
SPECULATIVE FICTION <br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.9pf5zsbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.invisibleuniversedoc.com">
Click here for more information on INVISIBLE UNIVERSE: A HISTORY OF
BLACKNESS IN SPECULATIVE FICTION</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">Steven
Barnes</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.9szdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fdarkush.blogspot.com">
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060228052311.02a21008@freedomarchives.org.4" width=120 height=150 alt="Steven Barnes pic">
</a> <br>
Steven Barnes <br><br>
I consider Octavia to be the most important science-fiction writer since
Mary Shelley. She wrote about race successfully because she did it with
such subtlety. <br><br>
For a time, Octavia and I lived within walking distance, and she would
come to the house for dinner. A lady of incredible intelligence and
rather dark humor, she was also what I called "a REAL writer."
She put so much more of herself into her work than I ever have, or would
be capable of. <br><br>
She was sweet, and kind, and generous, and brilliant. And now she is
gone. Travel well, my friend. Rest deeply. I'll see you soon. <br><br>
Steven Barnes, is an well know African-American science-fiction writer
and friend of Ms. Butler <br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.9szdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fdarkush.blogspot.com">
Steven Barnes Website</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">Harlan
Ellison</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060228052311.02a21008@freedomarchives.org.5" width=120 height=150 alt="Harlan Ellison pic">
<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#000066">Harlan
Ellison</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br><br>
Those who knew Ms. Butler agreed that, in many ways, she was a
contradiction. She kept to herself but was easy to talk to. She was tall
and imposing, and very warm and charming, but there was gravitas in
her." <br><br>
The heroes in her stories were often people of color, and Ms. Butler's
sense of isolation came through in her work. <br><br>
Ms. Butler had a number of obstacles to overcome in the writing business,
among them being female and being Black. <br><br>
What [Ms. Butler] was writing for the first time was a kind of
woman's-eye view, a very smart woman's-eye view, of say, 'Brave New
World' or '1984,'. <br><br>
Writer Harlan Ellison, Ms. Butler's friend and mentor. <br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.8szdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fharlanellison.com%2Fhome.htm">
Harlan Ellison Website</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">Jane Jewell
and Robin Bailey of SFWA</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
<br><br>
Jane Jewell <br><br>
Octavia is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right. She was
one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender and race in
science fiction. <br><br>
Jane Jewell is with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#FFFFFF">.</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br><br>
Robin Bailey <br><br>
I remembered her deep, rumbly voice. <br><br>
Robin Bailey, the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America <br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3 color="#000066">
<a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zyrlftbab.0.7szdgtbab.6yfxobbab.4605&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfwa.org">
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America</a> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4 color="#FFFFFF">Imagenation<br>
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Station<br>
P.O. Box 127<br>
New York, NY 10030<br>
<a href="mailto:gregory@imagenation.us">gregory@imagenation.us</a><br>
<a href="http://www.imagenation.us/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.imagenation.us<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Imagenation, a
Harlem-based organization, was established in 1997 to counteract negative
images and stereotypes that are propagated about people of color, through
mass media; and, to establish a chain of independent art-house cinemas.
Imagenation uses independent cinema and progressive music to foster
solidarity and cross-cultural exchange throughout the African Diaspora,
with special focus on the USA and South Africa.<br><br>
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