The Highlighter Article Club reads, annotates, and discusses one outstanding monthly article on race, education, or culture. Recently, Article Club focused on “The Spectacular Life of Octavia Butler” by E. Alex Jung. Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, CA and she died on February 24, 2006.  (Photo stock credit: Depositphotos).

In this episode, Article Club’s Sarai and Jung talked about several topics related to his article, including why he decided to focus on Butler as a subject, how reading her journals influenced Jung’s approach to the piece, why contracts were so important to Butler, and how Butler pushes us to imagine a better world. Click here to listen.

The Imaginary Worlds Podcast marked the 75th anniversary of Octavia Butler’s birth by replaying a 2016 episode, “The Legacy of Octavia Butler,” which was produced early in the history of the podcast.

In this episode, Nisi Shawl, Ayana Jamieson, and Cauleen Smith explain how Butler came to tell stories about power imbalances between humans and otherworldly beings, and what her work means to them. Actress Aliza Pearl read a passage from Butler’s 1987 novel “Dawn.” Take a listen here.