382. Black Lives Matter: Announcements, Octavia Butler, and Tochi Onyebuchi (Reading Rangers)

#BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter, BLACK LIVES MATTER, oh my! Jen and Shaun return (sorta) to the Reading Rangers format to discuss our latest announcement about the direction of the show for the remainder of 2020 AND to examine Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” and Tochi Onyebuchi’s Tor.com essay, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” This one is jam packed with content, from our views on what is going on around us to its connections to Onyebuchi’s essay to an in-depth discussion of the themes and social commentary in Butler’s story! You won’t want to miss this one.

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

“Blood Child” by Octavia Butler in Bloodchild and Other Stories (Seven Stories Press)
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The Duty of the Black Writer During Times of American Unrest” by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com)
Black Lives Matter Resources and Info:
- National Bail Fund Network
- The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (Verso Books) — ebook currently free
- SFWA Statement on Black Lives Matter and Protests
- “The Pandemic is the Right Time to Defund the Police” by Melissa Gira Grant (The New Republic)
Reading Lists and Other Materials to Support:
- “20 YA Books by Black Authors We’re Excited to Read in the Latter Half of 2020” by Farrah Penn and Ehis Osifo (BuzzFeed)
- Just Mercy (2019)(IMDb)
- Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019)(Shudder)
- Emily Hughes’ call for black writers to write for Tor Nightfire
- Podcasts in Color Podcast Directory
- “Where is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2019 Diversity Baseline Survey Results” by Lee & Low Books
- Black Science Fiction Society
- AfroBizWorld (directory of black-owned businesses)
- The Mad Mommy’s list of 400+ Black-Owned Etsy Shops
- “47 black-owned bookstores across the country that you can support” by Seija Rankin (Entertainment Weekly)
- Vita Ayala’s #BlackoutTuesday thread of books, YouTube channels, Twitch channels, comics, and more by black creators
- /r/Fantasy Reddit’s 2020 SFF New Releases by Black Authors (by Dianthaa)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Sphere” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

#BlackLivesMatter, Black SFF, discussion, Fantasy, genre, Genre Fiction, Literary Analysis, Literary Discussion, literature, podcast, politics, Science Fiction

shaunduke

A professor of digital rhetoric and other nerdy things at Bemidji State University and an University of Florida alumnus, Shaun studies science fiction, digital fan cultures, postcolonialism, and digital rhetoric. He is an avid reader of SF/F, a would-be writer with a few writing credits, and an all around SF/F wombat. He can be found on his website and on his Twitter account.