The Feminist Duration Reading Group in collaboration with Silver Press hosted a session of out loud readings inspired by shape-shifting and transformation, across time and space, gender and species.
Inspiration came from Afrofuturist writer Octavia E. Butler who wrote, in 1999, “I never bought into my invisibility or non-existence as a Black person. As a female and as an African American, I wrote myself into the world. I wrote myself into the present, the future, and the past.” By creating alternative worlds Butler laid imaginative grounds for more equitable futures to come.

Out loud choral readings were held nestled among the plants in the Barbican’s living, breathing conservatory. Moments of pause and guided reflection interspersed collective readings.
There was no need for participants to prepare in advance as readings were circulated on the day.

Shape-shifting and transformation, the fluidity of identity, materiality, and history, were evoked through texts of speculative and science fiction, poetry, scores and spells. Writers include Clay AD, Adrienne Maree Brown, Octavia E. Butler, Diane di Prima, N.K. Jemison, Bhanu Kapil, Larissa Lai, Andrea Lawlor, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Naomi Okabe, Pauline Oliveros, and Sofia Samatar.

Running Order:
- Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower, 1993 (extract)
- Diane di Prima, REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #40, 1968-1971
- N.K. Jemisin, foreword to 2018 reissue of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Grand Central Publishing, extract
- Clay AD, Metabolize, If Able, Monster House Press, 2018, extract (p.50)
- Naomi Okabe, ‘Transmissions from The Mothership,’ 2024
- Larissa Lai, Salt Fish Girl, Thomas Allen, 2002, extract
- Bhanu Kapil, ‘1947: Spell to Reverse a Line,’ 2025
- Adrienne Maree Brown, ‘Spell for Grief or Letting Go,’ 2014
- Ear Piece (1998) by Pauline Oliveros
- Andrea Lawlor, Paul takes the form of a Mortal Girl, Rescue Press, 2017, extract
- Clay AD, Metabolize, If Able, Monster House Press, 2018, extract
- Sofia Samatar, ‘The Death of Araweilo,’ Reactor, 2014
- Trinh T. Minh-ha, ‘Grandma's Story,’ in Woman, Native Other: Writing, Postcoloniality and Feminism, Routledge, 1989, extract
- Diane di Prima, REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #75, 1968-1971
- Clay AD, Metabolize, If Able, Monster House Press, 2018, extract
- Andrea Lawlor, Paul takes the form of a Mortal Girl, Rescue Press, 2017, extract
- Diane di Prima, REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #75, 1968-1971
- Clay AD, Metabolize, If Able, Monster House Press, 2018, extract
- Diane di Prima, REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #75, 1968-1971

This event took part as part of a day-long free programme in the Barbican's Conservatory featuring readings, talks and workshops on the theme of world-building and speculative fiction. The programme explored how coming together in creativity through words and imaginations can give a sense of meaning, belonging and community. The series was part of Spring at the Barbican: Concrete Garden programme which encouraged participants to retreat from the noise of the city with a season of growth and transformation.
The programme was announced with the following questions: What ignites your imagination? How does the desire to create manifest itself?
The programme also included readings by poets and writers Nikita Gill, Ariana Reines and So Mayer. Big Dyke Bookclub, hosted by Sophie Crawford, led a drop in discussion of formative texts and queer speculative imaginaries.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39521