#45 Reading Group: Goddess Change

In the coming four months Buro Stedelijk hosts the speculative fiction reading group Goddess Change, initiated by artists Anna Hoetjes and Müge Yılmaz. The year 2024 is the date that marks the beginning of the story in Octavia E. Butler’s masterpiece Parable of The Sower, where young protagonist Lauren Olamina comes of age in the dystopian circumstances of a bleak future. The reading group will focus on this date, 2024, as the year in which the fictional book Parable of the Sower transitions from portraying the future into portraying the past. For this occasion Anna and Müge have invited artists, writers and scholars Adriana Knouf, Fiep van Bodegom, Marly Pierre-Louis and Nat Müller. Each of these experts will lead a different session, where we will be reading and discussing passages from Parable of the Sower and other feminist science fiction texts.

We will collectively look at the agency we find in speculative futures that are scrutinized through a feminist and queer lens. While reading different passages from various books, we will delve into possible translations between the visual arts and science fiction literature.

What future can we begin to speculate on based on the present? How do we know when to go? What does ‘go’ mean in the context of your life? Lauren Olamina, the main character in The Parables of the Sower, tries to make sense of the deteriorating conditions of her environment and anticipate the moment when it’s time to flee. Marly Pierre-Louis centers the survival strategies of Black women and femmes in her practice. For her, the Parable series is an oracle of self-belief, collectivity and radical possibility, which will be the lens through which we will look at passages from the book.

We invite you to join one or more of these events on 23 March, 20 April, 25 May and 22 June, from 15:30 – 17:30 in Buro Stedelijk’s Studio Space located inside Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

You will receive the text beforehand, but preparatory reading is optional. We will also read them on the spot. Traces and thoughts will be documented on the walls of the office, will be expanded and remain visible through the windows during the period of these gatherings.

The reading sessions at Buro Stedelijk lead up to a two-day feminist science fiction event Gathering Earthseed taking place at W139 on 20 & 21 July 2024.

Anna Hoetjes and Müge Yilmaz previously realized Manifestation #20: Taking Root Among The Stars with Buro Stedelijk at UNFAIR23.

The title derives from the first verse of Octavia E. Butler’s The Book of the Living

Buro Stedelijk Studio Space, 15:30 – 17:30
This event will be in English.

Manifestation #45: Reading Group Goddess Change is part of a series of four Saturday afternoon hosted by Anna Hoetjes and Müge Yılmaz in Buro Stedelijk’s Studio Space.