Speaker 1: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 1: is Womanica. This month, we're talking about women of science fiction.
Speaker 1: These women inspire us to imagine impossible worlds, alien creatures,
Speaker 1: and fantastical inventions, revealing our deepest fears and hopes for
Speaker 1: the future. Today, we're talking about a pioneering Black author
Speaker 1: who wrote across genres plays mystery, horror, romance, fantasy, and
Speaker 1: science fiction. She used fiction to build worlds and present
Speaker 1: the truth while entertaining the reader. Meet Pauline Hopkins. Pauline
Speaker 1: was born in eighteen fifty nine in Portland, Maine. When
Speaker 1: she was just an infant, her family moved to Boston.
Speaker 1: She would go on to live in Massachusetts for most
Speaker 1: of her life. Pauline's artistic career started when she was
Speaker 1: just a teenager. In eighteen seventy five, she performed as
Speaker 1: a successful soprano. She also toured with her family singing group.
Speaker 1: By eighteen seven twenty seven, she'd shifted to theater, first
Speaker 1: as a performer, then as a playwright. In eighteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: her musical drama titled Peculiar Sam Or the Underground Railroad
Speaker 1: took off. It also went by a few other names
Speaker 1: over the years. The play was a groundbreaking story of
Speaker 1: slavery in America written by a black woman, but what
Speaker 1: Pauline became most known for was her fiction writing. In
Speaker 1: May of nineteen hundred, a group of four black men
Speaker 1: published the very first issue of the literary journal known
Speaker 1: as the Colored American Magazine. Within its pages was Pauline's
Speaker 1: very first creative literary work. She was the only woman
Speaker 1: to be published in that first issue, and later she
Speaker 1: became the literary editor and then the editor in chief.
Speaker 1: The magazine became a home for Pauline's writing, which explored political, racial, social,
Speaker 1: and feminist themes in a variety of genres, including what
Speaker 1: would later be known as science fiction. In nineteen oh two,
Speaker 1: Pauline published the first serial chapters of her novel called
Speaker 1: of One Blood. The story takes off when a Boston
Speaker 1: medical student sees a beautiful woman perform as part of
Speaker 1: a choir. This woman is light skinned, white, passing like
Speaker 1: he is. He proposes to her, but before they could
Speaker 1: live out their wedded bliss, he needs money, so he
Speaker 1: takes a job on an expedition to Ethiopia, where he
Speaker 1: finds himself proclaimed King of a wealthy, advanced utopian city
Speaker 1: hidden beneath the pyramid. The book has been called the
Speaker 1: first science fiction novel by a woman of color, and
Speaker 1: the African utopian society that Pauline describes is something of
Speaker 1: a proto Wacanda, the fictional high tech African nation in
Speaker 1: Marvel's Black Panther. In her work, Pauline blended real histories
Speaker 1: with utopian potential because understanding the past, really knowing it,
Speaker 1: was a way to fight back against racial prejudice in
Speaker 1: her day, and she mixed all of that with a
Speaker 1: mystical scientific adventure that broke down the social constructs of
Speaker 1: Raceane was living through an era often called the Nator.
Speaker 1: It was a particularly violent time for race relations in America.
Speaker 1: There were lynchings, scientific racism was codified, and Jim Crow
Speaker 1: laws in forced segregation across the country. A growing group
Speaker 1: of intellectuals was speaking out against this racial violence and discrimination,
Speaker 1: and Pauline was an important member. Beyond writing, she also
Speaker 1: hosted prominent luminaries like Mary Church, terrelle I to W Wells,
Speaker 1: and someone who would lead to her career's downfall, Booker T. Washington.
Speaker 1: When it came to helping the black population in America.
Speaker 1: Pauline and Washington had differing political views. Washington had just
Speaker 1: given his landmark speech, the Atlanta Address of eighteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: and while many praised him for it, W. E. B.
Speaker 1: Du Bois later criticized him, calling his work accommodationist, as
Speaker 1: in accommodating and cooperating with the white people who oppressed them.
Speaker 1: Pauline agreed with du Bois. She believed that black people
Speaker 1: in America should directly challenge the roots of oppression, and
Speaker 1: she wasn't afraid to do it in her writing. So
Speaker 1: Washington bought the magazine that Pauline edited, the place where
Speaker 1: she published many of her serialized stories and other influential writing.
Speaker 1: He did it through a frontman and then made swift
Speaker 1: work of taking the publication apart. In the end, he
Speaker 1: moved production from Boston to New York. Pauline tried to
Speaker 1: hold onto her job, but after a few months, she
Speaker 1: too was pushed out. The magazine shifted to espouse a
Speaker 1: more moderate political stance until it ceased printing in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh nine. To Boys later wrote that the magazine became
Speaker 1: quote so conciliatory, innocuous, and uninteresting that it died a
Speaker 1: peaceful death, almost unnoticed by the public. After she returned
Speaker 1: to Massachusetts, Pauline tried working at a few other literary magazines,
Speaker 1: including one she founded herself. In the end, she supported
Speaker 1: herself as a stenographer and likely worked for MIT. Pauline
Speaker 1: Hopkins died in nineteen thirty from injuries she sustained in
Speaker 1: a house fire. She was seventy one years old. Despite
Speaker 1: an era of obscurity since her death, academics and readers
Speaker 1: alike have devoured and analyzed her work. Pauline's pioneering novel
Speaker 1: of One Blood was republished in twenty twenty two. All month,
Speaker 1: we're talking about women of science fiction. For more information,
Speaker 1: find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special
Speaker 1: thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator.
Speaker 1: As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend.
Speaker 1: Talk to you on Monday.