As a writer, activist, and woman of color, I created Memoir Magazine to foster more empathy for the women of color experience, particularly African-American Women. I wanted to create a place where our stories could make the most impact in society at large, where people everywhere could experience more of the rich tapestry of our lives, our hearts and minds, as well as the vital roles we continue to play in the cultural collective of this nation. After all, nothing fosters empathy like a walk in another person's shoes, and memoir offers that opportunity.

I knew that we, as women of color writers, needed a literary magazine that would fairly consider our reality in the wider literary landscape, and I wanted to create a safe space for us to tell our stories, without judgment, because I know the power of writing to heal the writer as well as the reader.

Binti, the first book of the Binti Series, by author Dr. Nnedi Okorafor is a refreshing breath to the science fiction community. Following the footsteps of Octavia Butler, Dr. Okorafor features a black woman as the centerpiece narrative. The world of Binti marries African culture with the future.
 
“My science fiction has different ancestors - African ones,” says author Dr. Okorafor in her November 2017 TED talk. She’s an American born daughter of Nigerian parents born on April 8th, 1974. She began writing while recuperating from a surgery to resolve scoliosis and has since published multiple books and stories which reflect West African heritage and American life.
 
This particular book is about a young woman named Binti leaving home for the first time to attend a university very far away and without her family’s blessing. The reader is immediately presented with the human struggle of establishing oneself outside of their family. At just ninety pages, this Afrofuturist, young adult novella packs a lot of punch with its marriage of African tradition and technology, linked through the theme of human truth.
 
Binti is an incredibly well-rounded character. Her motivation is obvious, and the protagonist begins as one thing then evolves into another while remaining clear and concise at every point of the narrative. She’s believable, her plight relatable. In a world of transporters, astrolabes, and alien species, there is a constant thread of humanity concerning class and race relations, self- discovery, and personal growth.
 
The plot moves swiftly, as a novella should, and stays on task through each page. Sentences are concise yet incredibly poetic. There are lines so well written, I found myself just putting down the book to process. Binti describes her people as: “We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something ins’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.” Lines like this made me understand Binti, and her people, on a spiritual level.

​Octavia Butler’s writing breaks through racial genre barriers giving a glimpse into the psyche of black characters while putting readers into different surroundings. Butler was born in Pasadena, California on June 22, 1947. While studying at the Screenwriter’s Guild Open Door Program and the Clarion Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop in 1969 and 1970, she took a course with science fiction master Harlan Ellison. She eventually became his mentee, leading her to sell her first science fiction stories. Since then, she has published novels, many which are apart of entire series, and story collections.
 
Though science fiction is one of my favorite genres, I often found myself wondering where the people who looked like me were or being confused by the behaviors of the characters that resembled me. The first time I remember seeing a black woman in science fiction was around seven or eight while watching Star Trek: Generations and Whoopi Goldberg was playing Gaia.
 
There seems to be this notation that black people don’t like nerdy entertainment, specifically science fiction. To be honest, I only found out about Octavia Butler recently with the announcement of her novel “Dawn” being adapted for the small screen by Ava Duvernay. “Dawn” is the first book of the Xenogenesis Series published in 1987.
 
This is the book I began my journey with. The first thing I noticed while trying to procure the novel was how difficult it was to locate locally. Not only did the neighboring stores not carry the book, they didn’t even know who Octavia Butler was. I found it interesting that this Hugo Award Recipient and Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductee, praised by critics, peers, readers, New York Times and Washington Post writers was just a vague name even to literary professionals.
 
When the book arrived from Amazon, I literally danced around my place ready to consume new greatness. The cover struck me first. A black woman with french braids covering her breasts with folds of plants all around her and rambunctious bangs. The main character, Lilith was showcased on the cover, and although she didn’t literally look like me… she was me. I saw myself in a genre that often doesn’t give people of color, especially women of color, much forethought. The cover merely was a reminder of releasing art that’s true and knowing that the right people will find it.
 
The overall theme is Lillith becoming the mother of a new hybrid race of humans who will be genetically better than their ancestors. I was struck by the unapologetic declaration that the black woman birthed the earth. Butler’s world building is phenomenal. Within pages, I was absorbed by this place that was alien but also familiar. Moments when things are starting to get too alienated to understand, Butler provides simple but strong human truths to ground you. Concepts that require you to unpack your own humanity in a attempt to understand what it is exactly that makes one human. What makes one extraterrestrial? Is violence bred within us or do we learn violence? Can violence be genetically engineered out of us? Could the ailments that can’t be cured by our physicians really be an unlocking of the potential of the human genome? Questions that Butler leads you, like a parent would lead a child, to a new experience is a scary new way of thinking but definitely more fun. The title “Grand Dame of Science Fiction” definitely isn’t wasted on Octavia Butler.

I picked this novel up because I really enjoyed What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day. After reading Cleage for the first time, I wanted more Pearl Cleage. I don’t know what it is about her novels but they always find me at the right time.

Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do takes place in Atlanta, GA, and revolves around recovering drug addict Regina Burns. Me and Regina met at the perfect time. Both of us were finally stepping into the light after years of being in the darkness and making bad decisions. Both attempting to create a new start and clean up the messes we left behind when we fell to the bottom.

If Regina was real she would have been my prayer partner. I watched Regina face her past, her rock bottom. I prayed for her strength through the many trials and tests she faced, including working for her ex-almost-husband’s mother who claimed Regina wasn’t good enough for her son and Regina dealing with men too good to be true.

In the end, this book is about triumph and seeing the underdog make a come-up and find love.
​
I recommend this novel to anyone working towards peace and contentment, to anyone fighting to be the hero in their own story.  

Because I’m a poet, I sometimes respond to novels I’ve read in verse—inspired to add my voice to stories that have moved me.
 
Poetic Book Synopsis: Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do
​
How many people been to rock bottom?
I mean the bot-tem’.
That point where you can’t do anything but go up because going down would leave you 6 feet in the ground, and you got too much life to be dead.
That type of bottom.
It’s a hard place to be.
Stuck between death and life.
Regrets and debts consolidating.
At the bottom, we don’t think about survival instead we pray for sleep.
But at least we pray.
At least we show signs of faith.
Faith brings hope and hope brings light, and light brings change.
The good thing about the bottom is the only other direction left is up.
Once you start going up, just keep going. All the way up. Then stand and stretch.
You stand just as tall as everyone else.
Just because you started at/fell to the bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.
Grab a hold of yourself and help yourself up and stand. Stand taller than before.
And live again. Live harder. Live stronger. Live happier.
We all fall. Falling is easy. We fall everyday but getting up is what takes all your strength.
Getting up and cleaning up the mess you made when you fell.
Because when we fall we make a clash! And we do some crazy things.
Some things we never thought we’d do…

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