Star Child Rising: Turning a Northwest Pasadena School Auditorium into a Portal for Imagination
On a cool Friday afternoon in December, the students of Octavia E. Butler Magnet School filed into their auditorium with the soft hum of anticipation. They filled the long rows of wooden seats, the kind worn smooth by years of assemblies, rehearsals, and school day rituals. Above them, the lights cast a patient glow across the stage. Pointed at the scrim, a projector waited to drop its first image. The room felt like a threshold, gently asking: what happens when young people are invited to imagine beyond what they already know?
This was the Star Child Teen Reading, supported by the National Education Association, which gifted each student a copy of the featured book: Star Child by Ibi Zoboi, a vivid portrait of Octavia Butler’s early imagination.
The selection came from Pasadena’s own Octavia’s Bookshelf, a local black woman-owned bookstore that has become both a cultural anchor and a gathering place for readers discovering Butler for the first time and die hard fans of the science fiction writer. It was a fitting choice. Star Child is part biography, part constellation, part invitation. It asks young people to consider how a creative life begins and what it requires: curiosity, resilience, and a belief that the world can be rewritten.
The Room Before It Became a Stage
In the weeks leading up to the program, the BBOI team walked the OEB auditorium to understand how the environment could support the story being told. The site-visit notes show the view from the back of the room, the scrim ready for projection, the cluster of lighting controls tucked backstage, and the soundboard that would sit in the midst of student chatter. The room is modest, but when studied closely it reveals a quiet flexibility. With the right sequence, the right pacing, the right spark, it could feel like a small transmedia excursion for one afternoon.
And on December 5, it did.
A Pulse, Then a Lift
The event began not with a lecture but with a pulse. DJ Jedi took control of the room with a warm, rhythmic set that coaxed students into a mood somewhere between curiosity and celebration. His music didn’t overwhelm. It cleared space.
Then KG Superstar walked onstage with the instinctive ease of someone who knows how to meet students where they are. He asked them if they were ready to go into the future. The room answered.
A short film (produced by BBOI for PolicyLink)on Afrofuturism filled the gigantic stage wide screen.. It offered a doorway into what would follow. The message was clear: imagination is not a luxury. It is a framework for survival and possibility.
After the film, four young poets stepped into the light one by one. Their work moved through themes of transformation, identity, and cosmic belonging. Jasmine, performing the title poem Star Child, stitched the afternoon back to Zoboi’s book. The poems did not lecture the students. They reflected them. They honored the hunger, the questions, and the sharp edges that live inside young creators.
Throughout the program, KG Superstar modulated the room: calling for energy, asking for intention, reminding students that listening is its own art form. His chant, “I am a star child,” echoed against the walls like a declaration.
When the Author Appeared
The most intimate moment came when the screen flickered to life again and author Ibi Zoboi joined via Zoom. Suddenly, the book moved from object to voice. She spoke about Octavia Butler’s early life and about the fragile beginning of any creative path. Students leaned in. There was no distance between the auditorium in Pasadena and the living room or office where Zoboi spoke. For a few minutes, it felt like they were receiving a quiet message from someone in a land far far away, who understood how a dream might start small and still change everything.
Afterward, OEB librarian Ms. Daily stepped onto the stage for an awards segment that honored leadership, imagination, and learning. It was a graceful reminder that creativity is not separate from academic rigor or personal growth. It is threaded through both.
Then came the book giveaway. Students’ faces shifted as they realized some of them would walk out with their own copy of Star Child, ready to continue the conversation beyond the walls of the school.
What the Afternoon Revealed
What started out as a small concept akin to a simple ‘story time reading’ hour with 50-60 kids in a small room, turned into a full-blown spectacle with high production value for nearly 500 students. To say it was a memorable moment would be an understatement for sure.
Events like this do not exist simply to entertain. They realign what is possible inside a school community. They create shared language around courage, artistry, and future thinking. They show how literature can be a catalyst for self-recognition, especially for young people who do not often see themselves reflected in the center of cultural narratives.
In the auditorium where Octavia Butler’s name is spoken daily, the Star Child Teen Reading Series offered something more than a reading. It offered a blueprint for how imagination can be nurtured, protected, and expanded. It drew a line from a young girl writing in Pasadena decades ago to the students sitting in those rows today.
This is the work of Octavia Fest. It is also the work of education that honors both intellect and wonder.
It was an honor to bring new books, new conversations, and new opportunities for young people to see their stories as worthy of the world they want to build.
