Butler’s most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970’s California to antebellum Maryland.  As she time-travels between worlds – one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation – she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana’s own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him.

Participants are encouraged to kick off their reading on Saturday, June 24th in honor of Octavia Butler’s birthday!

Kindred Summer Book Club Session II with guest speaker Tananarive Due

Saturday, July 22nd | 3 pm EST
Virtual via Zoom (Link will be provided after registration and prior to the event)

Virtual guest speaker Tananarive Due will explore the author behind the book to continue the conversation about Kindred. Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award. Her writing has also been included in several best-of-the-year anthologies. Shortly after the publication of her debut novel, The Between, Due met sci-fi icon and MacArthur genius Octavia E. Butler at a Black writers’ conference, which led to friendship. Due wrote the article, “Inside My 90 – Minute Visit with Octavia Butler”  for Essence Magazine in 2020.

Kindred Summer Club Session 3 and Kindred FX Film Screening with Guest Speaker Courtney Lee-Mitchell 

Saturday, August 12 | 1 pm
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum Theater, 2nd Floor
Free with Museum Admission

Join us as we conclude our Summer Book Club with an in-person screening of select episodes from the FX Series Kindred adapted from the celebrated Octavia Butler novel by writer and showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.  

The afternoon will conclude with a conversation with Kindred executive producer Courtney Lee-Mitchell. From 2007 to 2012, Courtney worked in development for Cine Mosaic, the NYC-based production company founded by Lydia Dean Pilcher. Films on which Courtney worked during her time at Cine Mosaic include the Mira Nair-directed feature films The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Amelia as well as the Fox Searchlight feature film Notorious about the life of Notorious B.I.G. directed by George Tillman, Jr. After leaving Cine Mosaic, Courtney began developing projects, including Kindred, through her company, 4th Power Films.