Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Author Octavia E. Butler & The Fire This Time

1/22/2025

Introduction

Long lauded for her masterful blend of science fiction and realistic social observations, author Octavia E. Butler’s name over the past decade has grown to command greater and greater attention as a highly-significant American master of literary innovation. That conviction has intensified with the tragic fires which decimated communities in southern California during the first half of January 2025 and left survivors on edge as they waited to see what a years-long drought, and the legendary Santa Ana winds, would deliver in the second half.

The historic tragedy, along with the return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, led many posting on social media to bestow the word “prophetic” upon Butler’s classic 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower, due to the author’s seemingly prescient allusion to them. Butler herself famously coined the term histofuturism , making her a histofuturist, to describe her method of researching and analyzing past societal trends to gain understanding of problematic present-day conditions and devise strategies for correcting such dangerous imbalances.

The cautionary implications of Butler’s work were evident enough 15 years ago that she was one of 5 Notable Women of the Past and Present featured in my special Black History Month and Women’s History Month article series published on AXS’s former Examiner platform in 2010. It should be noted that Butler’s novel did not become a New York Times bestseller until 2020. For the first time since the Examiner platform folded, the tribute article to Butler is presented (with minor edits) in full along with the review of Parable of the Sower then included. [Although fire caused extensive damage in Los Angeles County’s Eaton community within Altadena , where Butler is buried, her grave-site reportedly sustained minimal damage.]

A Grand Dame of Sci-Fi

Octavia Estelle Butler achieved the unprecedented feat of winning three major science fiction awards––the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, all in 1985––before going on in 1995 to also win the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award. This achievement, in addition to a number of other honors, established Butler as a “grand dame” of science fiction. It also placed her within the genre on a level comparable to that of Toni Morrison or Alice Walker within mainstream literary fiction.

The daughter of Laurice and Octavia M. (Guy) Butler, the author was born June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California [where approximately 8,000 structures have been destroyed by fire in January 2025]. After attending Pasadena City College, California State University in Los Angeles, and the Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop, she went on to launch her literary career in 1976 with the publication of the novel Patternmaster. Over the three decades that followed, until her death February 24, 2006, she would publish almost a dozen more novels including Kindred and Parable of the Talents; and the short fiction collection, Bloodchild and Other Stories.

Innovative Literary Vision

Butler’s work explores and expands the basic language of science fiction. In particular, she utilizes an interest in such subjects as psionic abilities, genetic engineering, different forms of power, and advanced alien intelligence to explore more earthbound themes of racial and sexual awareness. The various categories into which human beings place each other might be seen through Butler’s literary glasses as hierarchies that do more harm than good by encouraging and sustaining degrading forms of dominance rather than mutual respect or tolerance. In an essay for NPR titled U.N. Racism Conference, she observed the following:

“Back during the early 1960s there was a United Nations television commercial, the audio portion of which went something like this: ‘Ignorance, fear, disease, hunger, suspicion, hatred, war.’ That was it, although I would have added, ‘greed’ and ‘vengeance’ to the list. All or any of these can be the catalyst that turns hierarchical thinking into hierarchical behavior. Amid all this, does tolerance have a chance?

“Only if we want it to. Only when we want it to. Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.”

The author was particularly noted for her creation of unique yet believable female characters and her accomplishments in this area paved the way for such contemporary Black women speculative fiction writers as Tananarive Due and Nalo Hopkinson.

Speaking to Los Angeles Times reporter Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Tananarive Due stated, "In black speculative fiction, we are a tiny family and Octavia Butler was our matriarch.”

Parable of the Sower

precisely as many say it is doing in 2025Within the first dozen pages of Parable of the Sower, readers encounter a typical family armed with guns on their way to church, a headless corpse, a naked homeless woman, a community walled in by terror, and a young woman dreaming of stars.

The dreamer is 16-year-old Lauren Oya Olamina, the would-be-sower and teller of the parable. The place is California. The time 2024-2027 A.D. And nothing in America is how it used to be. The world to come, as Butler presents it in this novel, is one ruled by the more brutal forms of anarchy [with the threat of autocracy steadily increasing, precisely as many say it is doing in 2025].

(Original photograph of Octavia E. Butler by Cheung Ching-Ming. Edit with Butler quote by Bright Skylark LP)

Everyday life becomes an actual war between the “haves” and “have-nots” battling over each other’s few pitiful possessions. Children are stolen into slavery; women are raped at will. Dogs roam the land as wild killers. Policemen are barely distinguishable from criminals, and drug-crazed maniacs run around setting fires for the high of their lives.

Such is the world in which Lauren finds herself as she comes painfully of age. Black, bold, and brilliant, she has the misfortune of having been born with “hyperempathy.” This hyperempathy “is what the doctors call an ‘organic delusional syndrome’… I get a lot of grief that doesn’t belong to me, and that isn’t real. But it hurts.”

The syndrome is one that literally puts flesh on the spiritual equation that hurting another is equal to hurting oneself. The disadvantages of her condition are magnified that much more when she is constantly forced into gunfights to save her own or someone else’s life. For example: “I knew at once that I’d hit him. He didn’t fall, but I felt his pain… Then he toppled, and I collapsed with him.”

Described as a “sharer,” Lauren deals with her condition and her world by immersing herself in the composition of “Earthseed.” At first, “Earthseed” is nothing more than a kind of juvenile poetry that aids her understanding of life in general. She later decides it is nothing less than a revelation of universal truth regarding the permanent nature of God as on-going change:

“Any change may bear seeds of benefit./ See them out./ Any change may bear seeds of harm./ Beware./ God is infinitely malleable./ God is change.”

For Lauren, serious change comes at the age of eighteen when marauders kill her family along with numerous others and burn down their neighborhood. She is forced to team up with two neighbors she has never really liked. They set out somewhat vaguely for possibly Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, or Canada. As they travel, like Dorothy and company on their way to see the Wizard of Oz, they are joined by others searching for the magic of sanity. Ex-slaves, former prostitutes, a once-wealthy doctor, and orphaned children all eventually find their way into the caravan, all courageously led by Lauren.

Despite constant violence, hunger, and the threat of firestorms sweeping across the land, they maintain their vows to protect each other and even find love among their numbers. Nearly at the bottom of hell, Butler’s characters levitate naturally toward a sense of family in order to survive and flourish. Racially, socially, and temperamentally mixed, they manage to achieve a strained but functional unity. Without realizing it, Lauren evolves into a kind of warrior prophet, a futuristic Harriet Tubman leading her rainbow coalition of survivors beyond the reach of Armageddon.

From the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, readers know that Lauren’s ideas and teachings inevitably become “Earthseed: The Books of the Living.” The book is clearly a manual for surviving social, political, and personal chaos. Lauren leaves little doubt as to where she stands:

Embrace diversity.
Unite––
Or be divided,
robbed,
killed
by those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity.
Or be destroyed.

Octavia Butler set her novel some thirty-five years in the future from the date she wrote it, which as of this writing (in 2010) places it fifteen years in the future. Most of what Parable of the Sower has to say regarding contemporary times is implied rather than overtly stated. However, the man Lauren eventually marries, Bankole, realizes that all the horrors of their time are not new:

“In the early 1990s while I was in college, I heard about cases of growers doing some of this––holding people against their wills and forcing them to work without pay. Latins in California, blacks and Latinos in the South. Now and then, someone would go to jail for it.”

Imagine that: a man in what was then the future commenting on a past so eerily relevant to what is now the present.

by Aberjhani
Author of These Black and Blue Red Zone Days
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
and creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

For More on Octavia E. Butler
and California Wildfires

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Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

12/1/2021

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In his November 12, 2021, essay for England’s The Guardian newspaper, Booker Prize-winning author Ben Oki urged creative artists around the globe to dedicate their inspired labors to the production of works addressing the catastrophic crises of the current era. In his words:

“I propose existential creativity, to serve the unavoidable truth of our times, and a visionary existentialism, to serve the future that we must bring about from the brink of our environmental catastrophe.”

It just so happens that many creative artists already advocate not only for environmental justice, but also for economic justice, gender equality, and antiracism. That Okri declined in his op-ed/essay to comment on the last in this year when the verdict for the trial of the death of George Floyd made headlines around the world, and the trial for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery was moving toward a similar outcome, is a little baffling. After all, ending death by racism and xenophobia is no less a global crisis than preventing mass destruction from human-induced climate change. Neither, for that matter, is a coronavirus capable of masking itself and attacking our species in different mutated guises: such as Delta and Omicron.

Deatail from "Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 3: Meanwhile Back on Earth" art by Aberjhani. Full wall art print available for purchase on artist's Fine Art America and Pixels profiles as well as here at Bright Skylark.)

Does any of that mean Okri’s call for more mindful considerations of climate change should be ignored? Not at all. But how any given creative chooses to respond to it is up to them. My own compulsion to address climate change is apparent in the article, “The Art of Reversing Climate Change Denial,” in artwork currently on exhibit in the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport Art Gallery, and in the book, Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah.

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

I first became aware of Okri’s commanding literary voice after his novel, The Famished Road, catapulted him to world fame in the 1990s. If I hadn’t been a bookseller at the time, I probably would not have learned about the title. Moreover, I likely would have missed out on the gems which have continued to flow from his pen.

The Famished Road turned out to be one of those rare reads which I never wanted to put down and rushed back to at every opportunity. My review essay on it was published first in the now defunct Georgia Guardian newspaper and, later, in my AXS Entertainment African-American Cultural Arts column. In it, I pointed out something which illustrates well Okri’s current howl of existential angst:

His work poses very serious questions for the twenty-first century. Among them: To what extent will we allow the indefinable dynamics of something called “destiny” to maintain grief and horror in the world? How hard are human beings willing to fight to achieve and sustain justice, equanimity, or joy? And should progress be called such when it devours what is best within the human spirit? (From essay Ben Okri’s Famished Road Leads to Thrilling Reading Pleasure, by Aberjhani)

When considering the above observation made years ago, it becomes easy to see why much of my recent literary and fine visual art has indeed been mindful responses to the turbulent terrors of this historical moment. With climate change denial literally stoking the flames of mass destruction, xenophobia prompting unjust killings, and armed conflicts increasing instead of decreasing, how could they be otherwise? Small wonder that billionaire’s are investing their cash into space-bound rockets.

Supporting the Process

My brand of existential creativity cannot include the assertion that these days are humanity’s last days. I have to hold my creative endeavors and my mindful intentions accountable for something more than standing on street corners screaming the end is near. That is where the “visionary” aspect of Okri’s battle cry comes into play and where our philosophical approaches align best.

It is, without question, imperative we acknowledge the near-apocalyptic conditions forcing dangerous human migrations all over the world and producing toxic circumstances both physical and psychic in nature. It is equally vital we propose and work to secure alternative outcomes. My way of supporting that process has been, and remains, to help provide language, images, and strategies which enable us to steer our way through the raging chaos. How many before us have had to so the same?

The spark of life itself never goes out completely. The stream of existence adapts to new pathways and new challenges while yet flowing steadily toward a horizon of uncertainty and a dawn of renewed hope. This reflection is not intended to suggest the existential perils before us are insignificant. It is intended to affirm the priceless value of all we stand to lose and which yet might be salvaged.

Aberjhani
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

CATCH UP ON MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE WORLD

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Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

6/13/2021

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Some unquestionably will view it as a strange kind of paradox but the stature and influence of two Savannah, Georgia-born authors has just increased in two spectacular ways. Specifically, Iowa City council members recently named one of its largest public spaces the James Alan McPherson Park after Savannah’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning native son, who for years headed the world-famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Equally significant, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the American Literature Association to cancel its annual conference last year, it will return June 17-19, 2021, with the Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium at the DeSoto Hotel only a few blocks from O’Connor’s birthplace. Headlining the event is author Minrose Gwin, who will give a presentation titled “’Where you come from is gone’: What Flannery O’Connor Taught Me about Mothers” (free and open to the public June 18, Friday, at 5PM).

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

There are not, so far as I know, any plans to name a park anywhere after me (understandably enough and totally acceptable) but I am happy to note my book, Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind, is among the titles being made available by The Book Lady Bookstore for the O’Connor symposium. Given numerous postponements of efforts to host booksigning events while simultaneously taking precautions against the pandemic and moving ahead with projects addressing the full scope of recent social, political, and racial developments, the opportunity to include autographed copies of Greeting Flannery with other titles on exhibit for the O’Connor symposium is a welcomed one.

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

Next month, July 27, 2021, will mark the fifth anniversary of James Alan McPherson’s death. By now, my admiration for his work as expressed in Greeting Flannery is well-known. Therefore, when news broke in March (just as Americans were glimpsing light at the end of the pandemic tunnel) that Iowa City Council members had voted to rename the former Creekside Park in his honor, I happily applauded.

McPherson had sometimes joked that winning a Pulitzer Prize could be a terrible thing for a writer because once, or if, that happened, people rarely acknowledged any of his or her other accomplishments. However, as Lee Hermiston reported in The Gazette, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague was well aware of the author’s overall value when noting:

“I think Mr. McPherson is well-deserving. 'He was all about community... I think this is a great honor, and I'm so happy the city of Iowa City had the opportunity to vote to name this park after him.”

Highly-treasured as an educator in the city, the park was named after McPherson partly in response to the Black Lives Matter movement which swept through the U.S. in 2020. The honor stands in odd stark contrast to the absence of any major tributes to McPherson in his hometown. He is mentioned on a historical marker dedicated to the Carnegie Branch Library but his death in 2016 was all but ignored by media in the city even as it made headlines worldwide; the same lack of acknowledgement followed the announcement of the park’s renaming.

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

For some three decades, with the exception of last year, the American Literature Association (ALA) has held annual conferences in cities around America, including: Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Cambridge, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It started, according to ALA’s website, like this:

“In June 1989, members of the major societies devoted to American authors met at the Cal State Symposium on American Literature in San Diego, to discuss ways to provide specialists in American authors with new opportunities for scholarly interaction. The result was the American Literature Association: a coalition of societies devoted to the study of American authors.”

The ALA conference has been held in Savannah previously. But with cities reopening after a year of COVID lockdowns and struggling to regain economic footing, the choice to hold The Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium in the city makes it something like the lucky winner of a lottery prize.

The complexity of O’Connor’s writings when it comes to addressing such issues as religion and race has often resulted in divided critical responses ranging from high intellectual praise to doubt-riddled contempt. Extracting meaning from that skillfully-woven web of complexity is an important part of my own reasons for approaching reflections on her work via three creative routes: the essay, visual art, and poetry.

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” Minrose Gwin poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

The scholars addressing the symposium, directed by Georgia College’s Marshall Bruce Gentry, will present panels and papers on everything from “Flannery O’Connor and Race” and “Love, Law, Medicine: Teaching (Almost Anything) with O’Connor,” to breakout sessions on individual O’Connor short stories and miscellaneous related topics.

In a city where the concept of literature is too often restricted to references to John Berendt’s now-classic tome on Savannah, the current nods to McPherson’s and O’Connor’s legacies demonstrate its literary significance runs much deeper than generally suggested.

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

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More Thoughts Unspoken on Flannery O’Connor: Conversations with the World 104

9/28/2020

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This installment of Conversations with the World takes a new approach to the series by switching from well-known quotes to an additional excerpt from my “Thoughts Unspoken on Flannery O’Connor” lecture. The text will be followed by links to different articles and essays currently examining O’Connor’s depiction of race in her work and how racial bias possibly influenced her personal behavior or attitudes towards African Americans:

“My goal is not to offend but to encourage consideration. Anyone even slightly familiar with Flannery O'Connor’s work knows she was not a woman to bite her tongue. And I’m not talking just about the words she placed in her characters’ mouths. So I'm pretty sure that just like she did not bite her tongue in service to her vision, she would have preferred that, on this particular occasion, I not bite mine. In fact I’m not just pretty sure. I’m absolutely certain because of reasons which will become clearer when I read a couple of passages from Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind.

“This book about the literary cultures and histories we choose to sustain––and the ones which we either aggressively erase, or passively let vanish. In my examination of these ideas, I present three memoir narratives. The first is called ‘Days of Midnight Madness.’ It deals with some fun and not-so-fun times as a bookstore manager hosting book signings with John Berendt and Lady Chablis. The second narrative, titled ‘On Genius and Exile,’ focuses on writer James Alan McPherson’s relationship with his hometown. And the third narrative is the one I will be discussing and reading from today.

“When you read her letters and notice how strongly she defended her ideas, it becomes apparent that having Lupus did not stop her from being a fighter. That’s another way of saying she was a fierce communicator who tackled some very complex issues in ways women were not expected to deal with such topics in the 1950s and 1960s. We’re talking about such things as: the terror of one war after another, racial tensions in America and around the world, the impact of the industrial revolution on American values, the dynamics of intergenerational relationships, the evolving role of women in American society, and spiritual conflicts in a world, seemingly, more devoted to material and intellectual concerns. Those were huge issues which O’Connor tackled in bold innovative ways.”
--(Excerpt from 2020 lecture by Aberjhani canceled by COVID-19)

Greeting Flannery O’Connor is now available at a variety of online booksellers, including: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Books-A-Million. While it does share certain points of discussion with the noted in-progress conversations regarding O’Connor, it also reaches beyond those specific concerns. To learn more about one of the most significant discussions in contemporary letters of a major American author, please check out the following:

Weighing in on an Important Discussion

Aberjhani
Harlem Renaissance Centennial

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A Hidden American Treasure Comes to Revelatory Light (part 3 of 3): Sweating out a Poem

9/16/2019

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Title art-graphic with Suzanne Jackson, Rachel Reese, and Alonzo Davis on stage at Telfair Museums Jepson Center for the Arts. The screen above them is showing archival images from the Suzanne Jackson Five Decades art exhibit. (photo by Aberjhani for Bright Skylark Literary Productions)

Having refrained for years from attending any kind of party at all, I relaxed my self-imposed tension by mixing in a little work with a lot of fun. In a room next to the kitchen (which itself resembled an art installation) I saw a stack of books and, being the bookaholic I am, could not resist their pull.

Picture my surprise when discovering in the pages of Daniel Widener's Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles (2010), and Kellie Jones's South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s (2017), extensive references to the woman of the hour. Also nearby was a copy of ELEMENTAL and seeing it made me feel like the spirit of our friend Luther had dropped in to support the launch with his blessings.

By the time of the party, I had already learned that as well as being a visual artist, Suzanne was a poet who had studied with the phenomenal Lucille Clifton (1936-2010). At least two volumes featuring poems by her had been published: What I Love: Paintings, Poetry, & a Drawing (1972), and Animals (1978). Her writing had also been included in notable anthologies like the Nikky Finney-edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007). Maybe I was hoping to find those among the stacked books as well but, to avoid becoming self-absorbed to a point of rudeness, I forced myself to step away and began taking photographs of Suzanne, different guests, and the lush greenery outside the house.

The symbolic images seen in Suzanne Jackson's 12-foot award-winning canvas "Passages" (1978, above) are described in the FIVE DECADES exhibition catalog as "associated with love, childbirth, and women painted in expressive acrylic layers." It hangs here in front of 1 of 7 display vitrines and next to other compelling works included in the Five Decades retrospective debut at the Telfair Museums Jepson Center for the Arts. (Bright Skylark Literary Productions photograph by Aberjhani ©2019)

I tried to avoid cameras myself, not because I felt shy but because for some unknown reason I had begun to sweat--not daintily "perspire" but ferociously SWEAT, like somebody fully-clothed in a sauna--and my shirt was getting soaked. No one else appeared to be having this problem. Reluctantly, when informed that Suzanne wanted an assistant to take a black-and-white photo of me for potential use in a publication, I consented. Soon afterwards, the sweating became too ridiculous and I couldn't figure out why so I said my good-byes and started walking toward my residence, located at the time on the other side of town.

About halfway there, an energized psychic push-and-pull began stirring in my skull and words started to assemble themselves in flashes and clusters. Phrases such as "painted star-fire" and "unmapped territories" swirled and glowed like special effects in a movie. Is this, I wondered, what all the heat which had started flowing through me at the party and forced me to leave before I was ready was all about? A ball of winged language was preparing to reveal itself in one form or another and left me no choice but to stop walking, grab from my shoulder bag a pen and piece of paper, and write the fragments down.

Cover of Suzanne Jackson Five Decades retrospective catalog. For information on closing tour of the retrospective and book signing with artist Suzanne Jackson click the image. (Cover art courtesy of Telfair Books)

Such experiences were not new to me but the way they sometimes manifested could still come as an unsettling disruption. This was such an instant and every other block I had to stop walking and start scribbling. By the time I got home, I had written a rough draft which looked like it could be the beginnings of a poem. Okay, I thought, I'll just leave it in this folder and go back to it next week sometime.

Except that it refused to wait.

Polychromatic Inked Pages

Over the next few days I kept feeling drawn back to the folder and added to the lines already written in black ink, more lines composed in green, red, and purple ink. Sometimes I wondered: was I writing a poem or painting one?

Eventually, the evolving draft was complete enough to take on the title Syllables Painted on a Suzannian Canvas. It was enough to type up and print a second, then later third and fourth drafts before finally settling on: Suzannian Algorithm Finger-Painted on an Abstract Wall. It fit, I thought, the words which had sweated themselves out, the polychromatic inked pages, and the artist in whose honor the work had been composed.

Table of contents from Suzanne Jackson Five Decades retrospective art exhibition catalog. In addition to artist Jackson and editor Rachel Reese, catalog contributors include: Betye Saar, Aberjhani, Melanee C. Harvey, julia elizabeth neal, & Tiffany E. Barber. (Page image courtesy of Telfair Books)

My hope to come up with an idea for an essay or poem for the planned catalog in a couple of months appeared instead to have become an accomplished mission in a few weeks. It seemed the poem, which in time would be accepted for the pages of the catalog, had started writing itself the moment I read the words HATE HAS NO HOME HERE on the sign in Suzanne's window. Or it may have started long before then, upon that first meeting during my 2004 Harlem Renaissance lecture and book signing at the Carnegie Branch Library.

Contemplating how the poem had unveiled itself, I considered it a direct response to the dynamic creative presences gathered that day in Suzanne's home, and to my observances of the current Harlem Renaissance Centennial. This was appropriate enough given the way Harlem Renaissance artists, musicians, writers, educators, and leaders often inspired and empowered each other's creative efforts and political agendas.

Countering Toxic Bigotries & Heinous Practices

The unprecedented advancements of the Harlem Renaissance on multiple cultural fronts helped counter the toxic bigotries and heinous practices of a time when many Americans, if not most, were still entrenched in unyielding mindsets forged during the death-throes of slavery as it was practiced in the 19th century. They remained so even as social, legislative, and technological progressions in the 20th century indicated those who insisted on holding onto delusions of white supremacy were doomed to agonizing personal and collective implosions.

Our present 21st-century hour bears a lot of similarities to the previous time-frame. Works by black artists supportive of progressive change mattered then as they do now because often found within them were/are important ingredients for remedies to what ails our bleeding and burning world the most. Ingredients like symbols of life-sustaining values and language encouraging actions motivated by compassion and mindfulness.

The recognition and celebration of Suzanne Jackson's achievements in this modern era when chaos and enmity command so much attention on a daily basis is a recognition and celebration of some of our better options for moving toward the next century. Her painted, poemized, and otherwise choreographed meditations offer us touchstones of remembrance and awareness. Those touchstones inspire individuals and communities to consider more deeply and more efficiently the choices which have brought humanity to this 2019 moment of quivering uncertainties, and, the options most likely to help us regain the advantages of higher ground and hopes now seemingly lost.

Aberjhani
author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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Author Octavia E. Butler & The Fire This Time

Introduction

A Grand Dame of Sci-Fi

Innovative Literary Vision

Parable of the Sower

For More on Octavia E. Butler
and California Wildfires

Please use this form to contact Author-Artist Aberjhani, or the one below it to comment on this article.

Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

Supporting the Process

Contact the Author-Artist at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

More Thoughts Unspoken on Flannery O’Connor: Conversations with the World 104

Weighing in on an Important Discussion

Aberjhani
Harlem Renaissance Centennial

Contact Author of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

A Hidden American Treasure Comes to Revelatory Light (part 3 of 3): Sweating out a Poem

Polychromatic Inked Pages

Countering Toxic Bigotries & Heinous Practices

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Author Octavia E. Butler & The Fire This Time

Introduction

A Grand Dame of Sci-Fi

Innovative Literary Vision

Parable of the Sower

For More on Octavia E. Butler and California Wildfires

Please use this form to contact Author-Artist Aberjhani, or the one below it to comment on this article.

Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

Supporting the Process

Contact the Author-Artist at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

AberjhaniCo-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Dreams of the Immortal City SavannahCreator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

More Thoughts Unspoken on Flannery O’Connor: Conversations with the World 104

​Weighing in on an Important Discussion

AberjhaniHarlem Renaissance Centennial

Contact Author of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

A Hidden American Treasure Comes to Revelatory Light (part 3 of 3): Sweating out a Poem

Polychromatic Inked Pages

Countering Toxic Bigotries & Heinous Practices

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

For More on Octavia E. Butler
and California Wildfires

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Weighing in on an Important Discussion

Aberjhani
Harlem Renaissance Centennial