On today’s show:
0:08 – Oakland Black Pride kicks off this week! Olaywa K. Austin (@austinpowrz), Executive Director of Oakland Black Pride talks about the many festivities lined up from Thursday through Sunday – a fitness class, a pub crawl, and a skating session to name a few.
0:18 – Carol Wysinger (@CDubbTheHost), SF Pride Board President joins us to discuss what it’s like being the 4th Black person to hold that role. She also addresses the impact of COVID on the annual parade, her thoughts about police presence at pride, and the context of Juneteenth celebrations during pride month.
0:33 – Should we fight fire with fire? Jared Dahl Aldern (@JaredDahlAldern), an environmental historian and fire practitioner joins us to talk about an alternative form of forest management which could help prevent devastating wildfires. He adopts the term “cultural burning” instead of “prescribed burning” and argues in the absence of indigenous people, excessive growth of understory fuels in forests have led to conflagration. Aldern is co-founder of the Sierra-Sequoia Burn Cooperative, a grassroots collaborative of indigenous tribal members and private land owners who together practice cultural burning.
1:08 – Marcel Kitissou, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of African Studies and Editor of the Journal of African Foreign Affairs joins us to discuss to discuss political instability in Mali following its fifth military coup, which says is in a state of permanent emergency. Kitissou also addresses western interests in the country and attacks led by France against Jihadist groups in the region.
1:33 – During her lifetime, Octavia Butler was one of a handful of Black writers contributing to the sci-fi literary canon. Dr. Moya Bailey (@moyazb) joins us to honor Butler’s legacy and her impact on contemporary queer thought on the occasion of her birthday. Bailey highlights the many historical factors which had an impact on Butler’s storytelling and her contribution to what would later be called Afrofuturism.
1:48 – Isis Asare (@isisasare), owner and founder of Sistah Scifi, an online-only bookshop that specializes in science fiction, magical realism and speculative fiction titles written by Black and Native American women also joins us to celebrate Octavia Butler’s birthday. We discuss the online community which formed the basis of her bookstore, and the best books to start with for readers who are new to Butler’s work.
Photo: Octavia Butler signs a copy of Fledgling during a book tour in 2005. Nikolas Coukouma, licensed under CC 2.5