"Sankofa and Second Chances": A Sci-Fi and Social Justice Writing Workshop

"Sankofa and Second Chances" (its working title) is still in draft form. Reagan received a grant from 4Culture to get feedback from folks in the community as it’s set in Seattle’s Central District to complete this novel. This will be the second and final reading before all edits are incorporated, so you have a chance to help shape this novel with your feedback!

About the book:

When seventeen-year-old Brixton Hall arrives in Seattle's Central District after a violent fallout sends him fleeing Chicago, he carries nothing but rage and the desperate wish to go back. But the neighborhood his mother once called home—now stripped by gentrification—has other plans.

Cori Williams knows every corner of the Central District and every story the Orishas hold. When her best friend begins having vivid, impossible dreams, and her community starts unraveling under the weight of foreclosure and displacement, Cori knows it's time to call on something older than time itself.

Pulled into the Dreaming—a spiritual realm where the past bleeds into the present—Brix, Cori, Skyla, and Faruq witness the layered histories that built and nearly broke their neighborhood: Freedom Schools and Black Panthers, internment and return, the maps that redlined their families into corners. Each teen discovers a gift. And as the present tightens around them, they learn that some powers isolate, but others—story, ritual, art, and collective care—might just save them all.

In this stunning debut, the Orishas are fighting to be remembered, a neighborhood is fighting to survive, and four teens discover that home isn't a place you return to. It's something you choose to tend.

About the workshop:

Speculative fiction is a genre of writing that asks the question "What if?" This workshop is inspired by "Octavia’s Brood", an anthology of sci fi and speculative fiction edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown, both writers, activists, and educators. The writers included in the anthology imagined a world without racism or violence; worlds designed to center people with disabilities.

What to expect:

There will be writing and the generative sharing of ideas. Respectful, thoughtful and imaginative communication is required.

About the presenter:

Reagan E. J. Jackson (she/her) is a Seattle based writer, facilitator, and book doula. She is the author of "Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist" (Hinton Publishing 2024), three full length collections of poetry, two children's books and over 100 articles. Jackson is continuously plotting ways Black women can recharge, reset, reimagine and rest. She is currently working on her debut young adult fiction novel.

Registration is required. Register  here.