How is writing an African American character who lives in an African American community in Oaklan different from writing an African American character who lives in an integrated multicultural community on a starship or interstellar colony? How is writing a black man in outer space who lives in a predominately African populated mining community different than one who lives in on a planet where he is the only human being? How is writing such a character different if someone who isn’t a black man is writing him? Reframing the Other is a workshop about how to factor in not only the ideas embodied by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward’s James Tiptree Jr. Award winning text Writing The Other – but, how to specifically envision the way your character views self based upon what kind of world and community they live in. Sumiko Saulson, author of the BCC Voice award-winning 2017 essay on Reframing the Other “When We First Become Other,” and the 2018 Afrosurrealist Writing Award will discuss how to adopt character points of view for writing characters that are other than self and how to build convincing worlds around characters that are Other. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward’s Writing The Other recommended but not required for those who attend this talk.
