Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
In honor of Black Speculative Fiction Month, the Midwest Black Speculative Fiction Alliance (MBSFA) is partnering with the Downtown Main Library to present the Magical Realism of Toni Morrison on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
MBSFA's goal is to promote both independent and mainstream Black creators whose works fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction, such as science fiction, Afrofuturism, fantasy, and horror.
"There’s so much diversity within the space and so many ways to cover it," says MBSFA co-founder Aiesha Little. "This panel is just one of those ways."
The event, which will feature three local luminaries speaking about Morrison's use of magical realism in her novels Sula, Beloved, Tar Baby, and Paradise, coincides with a yearlong celebration across the state of Ohio of Toni Morrison. Born in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
"When I found out about the statewide Toni Morrison celebration earlier this year, I knew we had to put together a program around her and her literary influence for Black Speculative Fiction Month," says Aiesha. "Morrison was a cultural folklorist of sorts, incorporating African American folklore into her works and we thought this would be a wonderful way of highlighting the speculative parts of her work."
The Library has partnered with MBSFA for several events over the years, including the organization's first Afrofuturism Freedom School sessions at the Forest Park Branch Library; their Queen City Black Comix Day events; book talks at the Avondale Branch Library; and their Matinee Noir short film screenings at the College Hill and Clifton Branch Libraries.
Aiesha says that, for small organizations with limited budgets like MBSFA, having access to free Library spaces to host programming is a lifesaver.
It’s especially exciting that this event occurs during Black Speculative Fiction Month, which was created in 2013 by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade.
"As writers, editors, and publishers themselves, they didn’t always see creators who looked like them reflected in the genres they were creating in," says Aiesha, adding that the duo co-edited the 2013 anthology Steamfunk!
"As a Black person or any person of color, when you don’t see yourself in something, you must create space for yourself so that’s what they did," says Aiesha. "Thirteen years later, many other creators, organizations, media outlets, and even libraries have picked up the celebratory month and run with it."
About the Featured Panelists
CASSANDRA JONES
Cassandra L. Jones is an associate professor of Africana Studies and an affiliate faculty member in Film and Media Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on the intersection of race, gender, speculative fiction, and technology. She is the author of Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberation in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (The Ohio State University Press), which explores memory and decolonization found in tropes of alien invasion, time travel, and rootwork in the speculative fiction of authors such as Octavia E. Butler, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nnedi Okorafor. In addition to her publications, which have appeared in Frontiers, Women’s Studies, and the College Language Association Journal, she contributed to the BBC Radio audio documentary Afterwords: Octavia E. Butler.
KAREEM SIMPSON
Kareem (K.A.) Simpson is an author, cultural storyteller, and creative leader whose work challenges societal norms while illuminating the emotional and historical landscapes that shape identity, love, and belonging. Simpson’s writing is rooted in lived experience and community history, centering Black life, particularly Black queer life, in the Midwest and South with nuance, tenderness, and unflinching honesty. Through writing, civic leadership, and creative practice, K.A. Simpson remains committed to telling honest, resonant stories—stories that linger, disrupt, and illuminate what it means to imagine something freer, fuller, and more human.
TIFFANY NOELLE
Dr. Tiffany Noelle (nee Hinton) is an educator, scholar, and founder of Black Girls Stay Lit™ (BGSL), a Cincinnati-based youth development initiative that uses culturally sustaining literacy to cultivate voice, critical consciousness, belonging, and human capacity among Black girls and gender-expansive youth. A scholar of Africana women's literary and cultural studies, Dr. Noelle's academic work has centered the literature of Toni Morrison, with both her M.A. and Ph.D. research examining Morrison's use of water as a site of memory and traditional African cultural continuity. She is also a member of the Toni Morrison Society.
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