future vision

My lease is up in August. That means a) I’ve been living in Philly for almost a year and b) I have to start looking for a new place to live. I put a lot of effort into beautifying my current apartment but the rent’s going up so I’m moving on. Today’s appointments were eye-opening…in a way I felt like I’d gone back in time. When I was in my 20s, I’d never lived on my own before and so jumped at the chance to rent a 1BR apartment across the street from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sure, there were guys selling drugs out front in the evening and the elevator often reeked of urine (when it was even operational). But my top-floor apartment was clean and bright, and I painted the walls my favorite colors. Now that I’m nearing 50, I no longer have to make those kind of compromises. But I’m also unsure about my future in this country, so I don’t really think about buying property and wouldn’t mind finding a cheap crash pad until I figure out just where I’m heading next. My mother’s recovery from her fall in April is taking longer than expected so she’s moving into a facility for a few weeks. We’re calling it temporary but I think we all know it might not be. Still, that means her 2BR apartment in Toronto will be empty with the car sitting in the underground garage. Do I want to move “back home”? Not really! But it just shows that life comes at you fast sometimes. It would be nice if we could see what the future holds, but perhaps the best we can do is try to be ready for most if not all possibilities.

Last month The Horn Book celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Award (CSK) with a special issue. There are some fantastic pieces by major players in the kid lit community, but this one by Stephanie Toliver is EVERYTHING. Why, over the course of five decades, has the CSK only gone to a handful of sci-fi/fantasy (SFF) books? And could that be why publishers are so reluctant to acquire speculative manuscripts from Black writers? When we don’t give Black children the fantastic stories they crave, what happens to their own ability to dream about the future? I’m honored that Stephanie cites CIN’S MARK as an example of a SFF title that meets the criteria for the CSK. Here’s a bit of what she had to say:

Ultimately, using a SFF novel, Coretta Scott King and her future husband engaged in a dialogue about the future of humanity and the Black experience in the United States. They relied upon speculation to explore possible futures and the trajectories of the world. They saw Nichelle Nichols as an artistic expression of Afrofuturistic Blackness in media. Thus, I can only imagine the futuristic, visionary, and speculative thinking that could happen if the CSK Book Awards expanded their winner lists to better include these genres of literature. All Black children need more access to the kinds of stories that informed the Scott King family’s social justice philosophies. SFF is a part of the Black experience. We just need to acknowledge it.

Take time to read the entire essay—it’s an important conversation we should have had a long time ago…