Join us as we use the archives of Octavia E. Butler to examine the work, influence and legacy of the world's most unique voices.

Welcome to Radio Imagination

Writers Tisa Bryant, Lynell George, Robin Coste Lewis, and Fred Moten premiere new works of poetry and creative nonfiction under the stars in the Clockshop courtyard. For these commissions, each writer spent an extended period of time working in the Octavia E. Butler archive at The Huntington Library.

Radio Imagination: Writers Premiere New Works

Merrilee Heifetz met Octavia E. Butler as a young agent looking for writers. What followed was 20 years of letters, conversations and insights into someone breaking the borders of fiction.

Radio Imagination: A Writer and Her Agent

He has different nicknames—Talking Tony, Crazy Tony, Agent Tony. Between Ave 52 and Ave 60 on Fig—you can’t miss him. 6 foot 2 inches, slicked back hair, booming voice. Ask anyone on Fig—they heard him or seen him. But who is Tony? And does that phone he yells into work?

Future Plus is Thomas Carroll and Alex Tyson, with music by Ben Babbitt. Thomas Carroll registered his team, his only teammate is Alex Tyson

FUTURE PLUS: Talkin' Tony (2016 Radio Race)

Radio Imagination artists Mendi + Keith Obadike and Connie Samaras dive into Octavia E. Butler's archive, gleaning inspiration from her notes to produce new work of their own.

For more information about the Radio Imagination exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts, click here: https://clockshop.org/event/radio-imagination-the-exhibition/

Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive

Panel Discussion with Ben Caldwell, Ayana A. H. Jamieson, 
Douglas Kearney, and Nisi Shawl

March 10, 2016 | ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

Ten years after the passing of Los Angeles’ own Octavia E. Butler–one of America’s best science fiction writers and one of the few African-American women in the field— ALOUD celebrates Butler’s legacy. Navigating the dystopic L.A. that Butler often described in her short stories and novels, this panel will explore connections between Butler’s peers and colleagues, and the generation of writers and scholars who follow, and how Butler’s futuristic work resonates today.
 
Part of Radio Imagination, artists and writers in the archive of Octavia E. Butler, a year-long program produced by Clockshop.

Octavia E. Butler's Los Angeles

Clockshop is an arts and culture organization that seeks to generate social change through the transformation of public space.

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