File, Digital Video

Octavia E. Butler, Friday April 22, 1994
1:26

Digital video captured from a Video8 tape containing edited footage of the Octavia E. Butler's Reading/Reception held in Marygrove's Alumni Hall on April 22, 1994 as part of the 6th Annual Marygrove College Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series

The video opens with a series of shots of tacked sheets of paper serving as title cards. Silent footage follows of members of the Marygrove College Department of Dance preforming "Takei" a Ghanian Dance of Conflict Resolution.

Dr. Lynne Schaeffer, Chair Marygrove College Department of English, hosts the event, although the very beginning of her time on camera is without sound. She then introduces Mary Helen Washington, who provides an introduction for Octavia Butler.

After a cut, Octavia Butler appears at the podium. She begins by reading her article from "Women and Work," and discussing becoming a writer. She then talks in about working on her novel "Parable of the Sower," and the ideas, influences, and inspirations that went into it. She closes with a reading from a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, before taking questions from the audiences. In the question and answer session, she is prompted to talk about inspirations for her male characters, hierarchical behavior, film adaptations, sci-fi films and television, short stories and the inspiration for "Bloodchild," favorite authors and works, Igbo folklore and "Wild Seed," the religion she developed for "Parable of the Sower," and what she read as a child.

A brief sequence follows showing attendees lined up for the book signing after the program.