Trigger warnings: sexual violence, rape, death.
We learn more about life after Acorn is seized. The children are gone. The violence is constant. The hypocrisy is deep. The living save what little they can, and begin to plan while they try to survive.
Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 12 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreTrigger warnings on this episode: death, suicide, mention of sexual violence.
Acorn is overrun. Unspeakable, unthinkable losses. Loss of family, loss of life, loss of freedom. How to go on?
Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 11 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreOur narrator is born, and named, and welcomed. Lauren and Bankole discuss a move, again. Assessing danger, seen and unseen. Bankole tries to understand, again, how he and Lauren can shape the unknown. She shows him more of her self, this far in.
Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 10 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.
Read MoreMarcus leaves, with the Peraltas. Dan Noyer returns, chased. A fierce battle. Lauren speaks words she can’t take back. Jarrett is ascendant.
Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 9 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.
Read MoreLauren and Bankole visit Halstead. Some in Acorn encourage them to move; Lauren remains adamant. Marcus preaches, and finds out.
Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 8 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, offer questions for you and your people to consider, and dream of some fan-fiction crossovers.
Read MoreWe hear Marcus’s own Parable, his journey, and meet his religion. We get a perspective on the early life of Lauren. Bankole continues to press a move away from Acorn.
And as always, Toshi and adrienne offer questions for you and your people to consider. You’ll want to sit with these ones.
Read MoreThe Acorn community searches for Dan Noyer’s sisters. But find another, unexpected sibling. The reunion is heavy.
Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 6 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreWe learn about access to news, access to water, and mechanisms of control. The climate keeps changing. There’s life on Mars, and there’s life formed in a Petri dish. War is very popular these days.
Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 5 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreAcorn welcomes a baby. They hold ceremony. They assess the impact of the house truck, and we get a window into Acorn’s decision-making structures. They navigate the survival of ambiguous loss. God may be change, but some still fear it.
Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 4 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreWe hear the horrible ordinary story of how the house-truck family came to Acorn. And with Acorn, they bury their dead. Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 3 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And come with many questions for you and your people to consider.
TW: this chapter and episode include mention of rape.
Read MoreA battle nearby. Acorn acquires a vehicle, and new children. And the community is split by a right-wing politician. Promises of order and stability are so sweet. Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown break down chapter two of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreWe're back! We rejoin the Earthseed community at Acorn. They have held the land, they have made a home. But they are in the slow apocalypse. And we have a new, unnamed narrator. Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown launch us into Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreOctavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, the sequel to Parable of the Sower, continues the story of Lauren Olamina through her own voice and that of her estranged daughter. We see all that Lauren loses on the path of destiny, and all that she learns about our survival beyond apocalypse.
Read MoreOctavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is a groundbreaking text about a slow apocalypse in which we follow a young Black girl named Lauren Olamina as she survives the deterioration of all she’s known while seeding a new destiny for humans: to take root amongst the stars.
Read MoreOur travelers land. But not as they expected. They grieve, and they live. They sow seeds. adrienne and Toshi close out Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, with the final chapter of this crucial work. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreA fight. A death. Navigation, negotiation. And moving through fire. Toshi and adrienne engage with the lessons in Chapter 24 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreA watcher falls asleep. New folks join, through stealth and play. Our travelers work to balance trauma and kindness. Toshi and adrienne engage with the lessons in Chapter 23 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreThe travelers confront some grim moments, and grim realities. Lauren and Bankole build, and disclose. Toshi and adrienne grapple with the griefs and joys in Chapter 22 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Note, this whole book carries a trigger warning, but this chapter contains some particularly disturbing scenes.
Read MoreLauren and Bankole build. The travelers settle briefly, with intention. The individualness of humans is manifest. Toshi and adrienne engage with the complexity of the moment, in this reality and in Chapter 21 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read MoreNo rest. A gunfight. Bankole rescues a child. Our travelers find evidence of community. adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 20 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.
Read More