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Is history past? Octavia Butler's Kindred

Dr. Michelle Commander and panelists Tatia Harris, Andrew Swafford, and Renee Kesler respond to the neo-slave narrative Kindred by science fiction writer Octavia Butler. 

Kindred follows Dana Franklin, a Black woman of 1970s California, who is transported back in time to the plantation of her ancestors, a white slaveowner and the freeborn woman he buys. Dana struggles to survive the brutality and understand all of her kindred and the complexities of the communities they inhabit. Published in 1979, Kindred is taught in high school and college classes.

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Knox Pods
Podcasts of Knox County Public Library

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About your hosts

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Melissa Brenneman

Melissa listens to hours of podcasts on most days. She started the habit with the intention of taking long walks, but podcasts proved to be more addicting than exercise. She records, edits and mixes podcasts for the library.
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Alan May

Alan May works as a librarian at Lawson McGhee Library. He holds an MFA in creative writing and a Master's of Library and Information Studies, both from the University of Alabama. In his spare time, he reads and writes poetry. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in New Orleans Review, The New York Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, The Idaho Review, Plume, Willow Springs, and others. He has published three books. His latest, Derelict Days in That Derelict Town: New and Uncollected Poems, is forthcoming in 2025.