On Saturday, Oct. 25, a community gathered around a large, knotted, yellow-leaved 250-year-old oak tree in the edible ecosystem to dedicate the oak to Octavia Butler, the Afro-feminist science fiction author, through listening to student poems and reflections on Afro-futurism.

Afro-futurism, as defined by the Smithsonian, is an expression of the notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life.

The event was led by Dr. Fiona Maurissette, Assistant Teaching Professor in Writing and the professor of the first-year writing course Black Feminism and the Future, and Kristina Jones, Director of the Botanical Gardens and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences.

The dedication began with a land acknowledgement, developed by Indigenous students at Wellesley, that calls to action its listeners to care for the land they inhabit. Professor Liseli Fitzpatrick, Assistant Teaching Professor in Africana Studies, led the community in a blessing.

The event centered on student speakers Nyah Massey ’28, Sylvie Pike ’29, Keza Ineza ’28, Nadine Gibson ’28, and recent graduate Catherine Sneed ’24, who shared with the community poems and essays they wrote about their reflections on Afro-futurism and their ways of interacting with the land they live in.

Ineza was grateful for the community that sat under the tree on Saturday and listened to the poems, the reflections and calls to action that other students gave.

“Seeing everyone engaged in the Black feminist work that we’re doing was reinvigorating for me, made me find the joy [that] I was kind of losing,” she said.

Ineza was excited to dedicate the tree to a Black feminist author, Octavia Butler, who had opened up Ineza to literature that placed characters like her at the center. “I never really saw myself in books that had fantasy and function…[when] I picked up books by Octavia Butler…it opened up new worlds for me.”

A zine called “New Suns/Octavia’s Oak” created for the event by Ineza and Massey displays student artwork and literature that was shared at the event. Ineza shared a poem with the community from the zine about her family’s experience coping with the trauma of emmigrating from Rwanda after the Rwandan genocide.

The event was a Botanical Gardens Centennial Event, funded by the Paulson Initiative and the Frost Center for the Environment.

Dr. Maurissette emphasized that being on strike last year was incredibly difficult for her, because her in-person relationship with her students was and is the most important thing in her teaching. There were lots of smiles at the event as she met students’ parents and the community shared stories.

“I tell my students that the best form of resistance right now is to live their life so joyfully it keeps the haters mad,” Maurisette said. “Live joyfully, live fully, [and] take up space in the safest environment we have right now, which is Wellesley.”

Contact the editor responsible for this story: Lyanne Wang