Octavia Butler's Black teenage prophet Lauren Olamina created Earthseed, a spiritual practice based on the core tenet that "God is change." This practice space is generated out of Alexis Pauline Gumbs's  poetic practice and features poems she wrote for each of the 35 Earthseed Verses (and 18 accompanying videos), that explore each of the components of the philosophy of Earthseed. 

Simply put, a practice space is a space to practice at your own pace and on your own terms.  Instead of moving from "beginning" to "end" this is a space to engage and enter whenever you want with an abundant number of opportunities to engage (in this case 35 different poetic engagements of the principles of Earthseed to play with).  You could create a daily, weekly or monthly practice.  You could engage intermittently when you need support adapting.  You could use it as a shared archive to engage together with other friends who have signed up for the practice space.  It's up to you!

In her series of novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, science fiction author Octavia E. Butler created a character who created a change-based religion in order to adapt through the apocalypse.  The 35 verses of a text within a text called "Earthseed: Book of the Living" show up as chapter headings in the Parable novels.  Octavia Butler drew on a number of existing religions (Taoism for example) to create "Earthseed," and in the novel it grows out of the experiences of a young Black woman finding her role in community in the face of violence, environmental crisis  and massive social change, while the whole society she is part of breaks down and is reborn.   Can you relate?

Alexis Pauline Gumbs wrote the series of poems that comprise this practice space during a time of adaptation in her own life and community, specifically the process of growing with and ultimately shifting out of a people of color collective land project in Durham North Carolina she helped found called Earthseed. The poems are dedicated to her beloved co-founders and she wrote them after dreaming every morning for 35 consecutive days. The 18 videos that accompany this course emerged leading up to the Dark Sciences Dream Retreat, a retreat for 21 dreamers of color that took place at Alma de Mujer (stewarded by the Indigenous Women's Network) outside Austin, TX.    This practice space is at the meeting place of dreams (our subconscious prophetic processing) and dream, our intentions to create a better world. 

What is the difference between the "Earthseed: Adaptation Practice Space" and the "God is Change: Octavia Butler Immersion"

The Earthseed: Adaptation Practice Space gives you access to 35 poems and 18 videos by Alexis Pauline Gumbs with prompts based on the principles of Earthseed: Book of the Living, the sacred text created by the protagonist of Octavia Butler's Parable Novels.   

The God is Change: Octavia Butler Immersion draws on Octavia Butler's larger body of work and archive to provide a curriculum through which you can examine, acknowledge and reclaim your relationship to personal and political change.


Many of you have already purchased access to Earthseed: Adaptation Practice Space for 50% off with your purchase of this course.  In case you didn't, you can access it for 50% off now with this link:

https://sangodare.podia.com/earthseed?coupon=EARTHSEEDTOGETHER50