City Proclaims June 22 Octavia Butler Day

The City of Pasadena has proclaimed June 22 Octavia E. Butler Day in honor of Pasadena native and noted American science fiction author, Octavia Estelle Butler.

By the late 1970s she had become sufficiently successful as an author to be able to write full-time.

Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public, and awards soon followed.

Her book Kindred was selected as Pasadena’s 2006 One City, One Story. She received multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995.

She also taught writers’ workshops, and spoke about her experiences as an African American, using such themes in science fiction. Octavia eventually relocated to Washington and died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.

Octavia grew up in the La Pintoresca neighborhood at a time when segregation and oppression of Black people was the norm all across America.

Her mother and grandmother raised her after her father died when she was very young. Her mother worked as a maid and would sometimes drop Octavia off at the Central Library downtown on her way to work, where Octavia would sit and read to her heart’s content.

As Butler grew up she continued to frequent the La Pintoresca Branch Library and walk there on her own after attending Washington Jr. High School.

Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at Pasadena’s public libraries, reading fantasy and writing.

Butler began writing science fiction as a teenager and would read books about horses, draw horses, and read books by Charles Dickens.

She may have found characters in Dickens that she could relate to more easily than to her classmates at school—characters who had lost parents, who had to grow up poor, and who felt like outcasts.

Like those characters, Butler never felt like she belonged, being so tall and so shy, and coming from such a humble background. But in books, she could ride, escape, and go on adventures. Books were her wealth.

Octavia was very fortunate and wealthy in this one aspect: she grew up in a city full of libraries.

Unlike most cities, Pasadena decided long ago that every resident should live within walking distance of a library. Our city upheld that promise decade after decade by passing library services measures to keep the Central Library and the branch libraries open. The Central Library, in particular, holds a special place in Pasadena’s history and in Octavia’s life.

As the city’s largest and most comprehensive library, it served as a sanctuary for many residents, including Octavia, offering a vast array of resources and a quiet place to think and create. Octavia herself spoke warmly in a 2005 TV interview about the commitment shown by the City of Pasadena residents since the 1990s to renew these measures and fund the services and operations of libraries.

This City, its taxpayers, and residents, gave Octavia the opportunity to have a safe place to walk to after school to read and write daily and fulfill her dream to become a writer.

Her books are in all of Pasadena’s libraries now and in libraries and bookstores all over the country and the world. Octavia blazed new trails and showed future generations that they could indeed be writers.

She worked hard every day, rising at 2:00 a.m. each morning to write, polish her craft, and become a great writer. By succeeding, she changed the publishing industry, getting them to pay more attention to diverse voices. She also changed libraries everywhere by making their collections more inclusive and diverse.

The Pasadena Public Library said it proudly joins the community in celebrating Octavia Butler’s literary legacy and in remembering her presence at La Pintoresca and the Central Library. These institutions nurtured Octavia Butler and today nurture the next generation of writers, thinkers, and dreamers.