In October, OPEEP launched its new reading- and discussion-based learning community at London Correctional Institution. Twice a month, three OSU professors—Elea Proctor, Alexander Burry, and myself—convene with more than twenty incarcerated members. This academic year we will discuss various works of utopian and dystopian literature.
We opened with a lively, brilliant discussion on W.E.B. Du Bois' The Comet, a 1920 short story about a poor Black man and a wealthy white woman who encounter each other in post-apocalyptic New York City. Moving forward, we will engage with assorted science fiction and speculative fiction, as well as supplemental readings. Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles are upcoming on our agenda.
Professor Proctor and I will moderate our first few sessions, and the learning community will then transition into a decentralized conversation structure. We expect to begin alternating moderation duties among members by December. Keep an eye out for future reports!