Is history past? Octavia Butler's Kindred

Dr. Michelle Commander and panelists Tatia Harris, Andrew Swafford, and Renee Kesler respond to the neo-slave narrative Kindred by science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Kindred follows Dana Franklin, a Black woman of 1970s California, who is transported back in time to the plantation of her ancestors, a white slaveowner and the freeborn woman he buys. Dana struggles to survive the brutality and understand all of her kindred and the complexities of the communities they inhabit. Published in 1979, Kindred is taught in high school and college classes.