Last weekend I saw a movie that combined science fiction with political activism and food: Earth Seed: A People’s Journey of Radical Hospitality. It was the start of the documentary’s national tour; you can see the schedule here.
The name Earth Seed, of course, comes from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. These books have not only resonated with science fiction readers over the years, but also have become focuses for activist groups. They seem all too relevant, in part because they were written in the 1990s about a future starting in 2024 that isn’t as far removed from our own as we would like it to be.
The People’s Kitchen Collective – an Oakland group that has been providing meals for events and gatherings for many years – decided in 2023 to do and film a pilgrimage up California from Los Angeles to Mendocino that echoes the path taken by Lauren in Parable of the Sower.
Along the way, they meet with various community groups and prepare amazing meals while having deep discussions with the people.
It is a movie that inspires activism and community building and, to use their phrase, radical hospitality. In fact, a great deal of the movie as well as the discussion after the screening focused on what those words truly mean.
The film begins in Los Angeles, particularly in Altadena, where it includes a visit to Octavia Butler’s grave. Many of the places where they filmed were destroyed in the fires earlier this year, which made the screening especially poignant.
They go from there to Allensworth, California, an historic African American town in the Central Valley. Some of it is now a state park, and people are living and growing food in the area.
The third stop is on the Central Coast near Watsonville, where they meet with the people of Tierras Milperas. This region, like the Central Valley, is home to a lot of agriculture.
The fourth is their home base in Oakland, where they celebrate the history of the Black Panthers.
Finally, they end in Mendocino, which is where the Acorn community in Parable of the Sower was established and where there are some intentional communities focused on people of color.
In each place they trace the indigenous heritage and do not neglect the political aspects. Both People’s Kitchen Collective and the movie are BIPOC projects, with strong leadership from Black women, including Jocelyn Jackson, who emceed the discussion after the movie at the event in Berkeley.
This is a project that gets at both the history and the future of California, incorporating the activism the state is known for and the fact that the state is what is generally called “majority minority” these days. It is not the Anglo view of things.
It is, in fact, about as far as one can get from the Silicon Valley view of the world, despite so much of it taking place right next door to the world of the broligarchs.
I find myself wondering what Octavia Butler would have thought of all this activism rooted in her fiction. I wish she were here to see it.
I recommend seeking out this movie and following the work of the People’s Kitchen Collective. If there’s one thing we need right now, it’s people building community around the basics of life.
Food and art are pretty basic.