The Future is Now! Join us in a “Sustained Public Reading” of Butler’s The Parable of a Sower: April 24, 2024, 2:00 – 8:30 pm, at Mission Garden, a living example of our collective power to re-interpret the relationship between humans and the environment, as well as between the past, present and future.
Hosted in partnership with Mission Garden and the Tucson Birthplace Open Space Coalition, this event aims to celebrate the power of literature to activate emotional connection, introduce new scales and perspectives, reformulate relationships to selfhood and otherness, and open new possibilities for affect and thought. It also aims to underscore the connections between these literary capacities and their interpretation through the practical goals of Mission Garden and TBOSC to (respectively) “represent the deep history of multi-cultural regional food production, while mitigating food insecurities, resource depletion and the impacts of climate change” and to “honor the past and manifest a more just future by working together to heal our common sacred ground.”
The event will take place on Wednesday April 24, 2024 from 2:00 pm to 8:30pm. A separate children’s area will operate from 3:00-6:00 with stories, crafts, and a seed planting activity. Light refreshments will be provided throughout the event. Please feel free to bring your own food and drink, as well as flashlights or lanterns.
We need readers and volunteers! If you would like to sign up to read a chapter of Butler’s novel, please sign up on the google doc, linked here. You can sign up as an individual or as a “team” (dividing the chapter among several voices).
**Though The Parable of a Sower is ultimately a tale of hope and growth and change, its content is often disturbing, and contains references to violence, including sexual violence. Because of this, we recommend participants and audience members to be over the age of 18.** If you would like to sign up to volunteer at our children’s station (reading stories, leading an activity, or just generally helping out) between 3:00-6:00, please sign up here.
Also please feel very free to simply come and enjoy as much of the reading as you would like, as well as the beautiful April blooms in Mission Garden.
The event is free and open to the public!