The Octavia Lab, named after the award-winning science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, is a do-it-yourself makerspace located inside the Los Angeles Public Library’s historic Central Library. Octavia Lab provides library cardholders free and unlimited access to state-of-the-art design, fabrication, preservation, and story-telling technologies. lapl.org/labs | Los Angeles Public Library

“You’ve got to make your own worlds. You’ve got to write yourself in.” — Octavia E. Butler Butler became a groundbreaking author and Afrofuturist icon, emerging as a powerful voice in science fiction in the 1970s. She used her work to challenge perceptions of identity, sexuality, belonging, hierarchy, community, and history while often exploring what it truly means to be human. Rather than mimic the styles of white male authors who dominated the field, she used Afrocentric themes in stories abou