Roughly 100 people packed into the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland on December 5^th, excited to spend their Friday night talking about science fiction. For the event, (Re)Writing the Future: Social Justice and Science Fiction, I moderated a conversation between Grace Dillon, an Indigenous Studies professor who edited the first-ever book of Indigenous science fiction stories, and Walidah Imarisha, a Black Studies scholar who is also co-editing the upcoming collection of science fiction by activists, Octavia’s Brood.  I loved talking to Imarisha for our recent feminism and sci-fi podcast, so I was excited to talk with her in front of a live audience.

In the second half of the night, Dillon and Imarisha led the crowd in a writing exercise: everyone wrote one page of an encyclopedia that would come out in 2070. This futuristic Peoples’ Encyclopedia offered a look back on current realities like prison policies, border disputes, and Ferguson. The encyclopedia was printed on the spot and stapled together as a zine, while participants also printed their own posters bearing a quote from science fiction author Octavia Butler (above).