Agenda

Explore the powerful poetry of rising poets Makai Brown, Yanina Chicas, Jaxsyn Claymore, Wahpe Clifford, Maia Sanaa Eaton, Mikayla Johnson, Belise Nishimwe, Pte San Win Little Whiteman, and Autumn White Eyes

The host will open and close the day by weaving a synthesis of themes from the presentations, artistic performances, cultural work and dialogues to take place on the convening days theme of Non-Eugenic Futures. 

“MONOLOGUE MISSION”

“Built on Immigrants, Settled for Disaster”

By Elliot Babilonia (he/him)

Read by J.D. Mollison

“America, The (not so) Great”

By Nicaulis Mercedes (she/her)

Read by Kyla Garcia

“The Haunted Files”

By Judy Tate & THE LATE Michael Slade

Dir. by Melissa Maxwell

•STARRING ANTU YACOB & STINA NIELSEN
•Producer & Sound Designer: Simone Barros
•Videographer, Audio Engineer & Editor: Zachary Betonte
•TECHNICAL PRODUCER: YOUNG PARK
In 1904, a young black infant named Hazel is left on a doorstep. She is taken in by a family from whom she later runs away. Thus begins an odyssey of arrests, institutionalization, and medical intervention — all in an effort to cure her of “immorality.” Characters are real people from the files of the Eugenics Records Office in Cold Spring Harbor.

Post-Show Conversation: “Good Genes” and America’s Quest for Racial Purity” with Jack Tchen (he/him) and Leora Fuller (she/her) the original curators of The Haunted Files exhibition, in conversation with Judy Tate, Producing Artistic Director of the American Slavery Project

Drawing from primary source material, Haunted Files: The Eugenics Record Office reimagines the Eugenics Record Office, transporting visitors to the epicenter of American eugenics research and propaganda. Here, eugenicists channeled Progressive Era ideals of rational thought, social progress, statistics, and state management towards the pursuit of “race betterment” and the defense of Anglo-American racial purity.

No Más Bebés tells the story of a little-known but landmark event in reproductive justice, when a small group of Mexican immigrant women sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Marginalized and fearful, many of these mothers spoke no English, and charged that they had been coerced into tubal ligation — having their tubes tied — by doctors during the late stages of labor. Often the procedure was performed after asking the mothers under duress. The mothers’ cause was eventually taken up by a young Chicana lawyer armed with hospital records secretly gathered by a whistle-blowing doctor. In their landmark 1975 civil rights lawsuit, Madrigal v. Quilligan, they argued that a woman’s right to bear a child is guaranteed under the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. The filmmakers spent five years tracking down sterilized mothers and witnesses. Most were reluctant at first to come forward, but ultimately agreed to tell their story. Set against a debate over the impact of Latino immigration and overpopulation, and the birth of a movement for Chicana rights and reproductive choice, No Más Bebés revisits a powerful story that still resonates today.

Larry Hama, Louise Simonson, Christopher Priest—key past staffers at Marvel Comics—reflect on the ways in which the company has transformed a world of Anglo-American superheroes to a universe of differences.

Illuminating the recent anti-eugenics win in California, of a reparations program to repair the decades-long state-sanctioned harm inflicted on survivors of reproductive abuse, this discussion will spotlight the production of “No Mas Bebes,” a feature film about the sterilization of Mexican mothers in Los Angeles in the sixties and seventies.  Reproductive Justice organizers, from California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, will speak about the powerful campaign and what it will take to reckon with the past in order to create non-eugenic futures.

Octavia’s Parables

About the Podcast Series

Diving deeply into the literary works of Octavia E. Butler

Beginning with The Parable of the Sower, podcast hosts Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown are examining each of Octavia E Butler’s published works, chapter by chapter. The podcast summarizes the storyline, places it in a strategic context for those intending to change the world, and provides questions to help bring Butler’s ideas to life.

Toshi and adrienne have selected Parable of the Sower Episode 7 for you to explore as part of this Convening.

For more episodes: https://www.readingoctavia.com/

Octavia E. Butler was a Black science fiction writer who won the Hugo, the Nebula, and the MacArthur genius award in her lifetime. Posthumously, her work has landed on the NY Times bestseller list. She wrote twelve novels, mostly imagined in trilogies, and a collection of short stories. Hailing from Pasadena, CA, Butler spent her later years outside Seattle, WA. Her work gives us incredible young Black protagonists who are shaping the world around them, contending for new futures for the species.

Toshi and adrienne encourage all of their listeners to purchase Octavia’s work directly and dive into yourself! This link is preferred by the Octavia E Butler estate.

Join prominent scholars & leaders, N. Ordover, Mab Segrest, and Miroslava Chavez-Garcia in a conversation imagining the possibilities of how to confront historical eugenic institutions and ideologies from population control and psychiatric institutions.  Exploring what justice frameworks and movements, including the climate justice movement, Reproductive Justice, Black Lives Matter movement; and how the Not One More Detention Centers & LGBTGNCI and Pro-Abortion Campaigns are shifting the political and cultural landscape to dismantle archaic ideas towards new futures.