The Huntington Library recently revealed this cover page from brilliant science fiction legend & Afro-Futurism pioneer Octavia Butler’s personal notebook, which was discovered in their archive:
via huntingtonblogs.org
“This is my life. I write bestselling novels.” **CHILLS**
As an African-American woman paving her way through a super white- and male-dominated genre in the 70s and 80s, Butler had the odds way stacked against her. It’s so inspiring and powerful to see how she worked to affirm herself and her writing—all the while focusing her vision for success on meeting the material needs of herself and her family, and advocating for black youth too. I love the changes in ink—I picture Butler coming back to this mantra again and again with different pens, adding to it each time as needed to keep it motivating and relevant.
Read more about the Octavia Butler Collection here, and learn about upcoming celebrations of Butler’s work here. And let’s all get started on our own self-affirming mantra journal entries, please? ♥
h/t to Blavity.
