Toshi Reagon/Bernice Johnson Reagon/Eric Ting

Grant Recipient Details

Location

Brooklyn, NY

Artist

Toshi Reagon/Bernice Johnson Reagon/Eric Ting, Brooklyn, NY

Artist Website

http://www.parableopera.com

Project Title

Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: The Opera

Fiscal Year Awarded

2017

Grant or Program

National Theater Project Creation & Touring Grant

Grant Amount

$60,000

Based on the dystopian novel by the late Afro-futurist and science fiction author Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower is a genre-defying work of political theater that harnesses 200 years of Black music. It chronicles the spiritual awakening of young Lauren Olamina amidst a not-so-distant America wracked by the violence brought on by climate change that has driven society to the brink. Exploding the form of a ritual song-cycle, Parable fuses science fiction, African American spiritualism, deep insights intogender and race, and climate activism to construct a mesmerizing meditation on the future of human civilization.