Drawing inspiration from our 2025 Common Read, Octavia E. Butler’s "Parable of the Sower," the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is launching a year-long educational series — “Cultivating Earthseed: Taking Root Among the Stars” — where we’ll be hosting community educators, activists, and healers to help us fight for our humanity in the midst of turmoil.

Join us for our first session where community educator Jazzy Johnson will hold space for participants to make meaning out of their current world and seed and water new worlds through the practice of embodied collective storytelling. Embodied collective storytelling is an interpretive, play practice that offers participants a somatic means of exploring texts. We will explore "Parable of the Sower," its resonances in our bodies, and the ways we can use Octavia Butler’s wisdom to shape our world(s). No experience is required to take part in this dialogic and experiential healing space — come enjoy lunch and community!