What is in your spiritual go-bag?* We are living in momentous times, witnessing systems of genocide buckle in the face of Nature. Ancient wrongs can be righted at this juncture, but forces of hatred are clinging to power. In the face of plague, virulent anti-Blackness, continued colonial violence, and the rise of fascism, how can people of conscience protect our hearts and our loved ones?

Inspired by Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Camellia Dao-Ling and Colin Bedell humbly offer a mystical complement to the material “go-bag” that Lauren Oya Olamina takes with her in escape from racialized climate apocalypse. If you have surplus resources, please consider redistributing to those on the ground who are providing masks and other protective equipment to farmworkers and houseless people in fire zones.

Recording at this link.

*The term “go-bag” comes from Octavia Butler, visionary writer who is now an ancestor. Many Afro-diasporic change agents are working with Butler’s legacy to “shape change’’ in late-stage capitalism. This is a non-exhaustive list from Iya Dr. Monica Coleman:

• Saving Ourselves: Shaping Change Workshop  With Monica A. Coleman And Tananarive Due 

• God is Change: Octavia Butler Immersion

• Wildseeds: The New Orleans Octavia Butler Emergent Strategy Collective

• Parables in Iteration: A Closer Look at Octavia Butler

• The Octavia Butler Strategic Reading Series

• Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower: An opera by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon

• Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements

• Earthseed: An Adaptation Practice Space

• Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network

• Octavia’s Parables Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Google with adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon