Libraries Give Maurice Broaddus Space to Dream

Maurice Broaddus is a librarian, community organizer, and writer. In his view, it all ties together as part of the same mission: “to make the world a better place for us having passed through it.”

His writing spans Afrofuturism, horror, and speculative fiction — and he’s realized that different emotional states fuel his approach to different genres.

“I keep thinking about the scene in The Avengers, when Captain America asks Bruce Banner about him controlling being the Hulk,” he tells us. “Bruce turns to him and says, ‘That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry.’ In therapy, I had a revelation: When I’m writing horror, I’m processing my anger and trauma responses to the world around me. But when I’m writing science fiction, I’m writing from a place of future hope, a dreaming space. As I begin world-building from a blank page, I’m able to see in the world limitless possibilities.”

Broaddus describes himself as a daydreamer and views that as a positive quality. “Daydreaming is a valuable skill set, one to be nurtured,” he says. “But it had to be harnessed and trained. But to do that, I need a safe place that would allow me room to dream. In high school, I developed my love of libraries. It was a thirty-minute walk to the neighborhood library from my high school. A trek I made every day, to hang out, to study, to just . . . be. It was my safe haven, a place I could find solace and escape. It was this magical place that had all these portals, called books — to be navigated by these instruments called ‘card catalogs’ — that transported me to new worlds. It’s where I was able to research new things, explore my imagination, and learn how to become a storyteller. The library was a place that allowed me the space to dream.”

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Afrofuturism has been a major influence on how he approaches world-building and the reimagining of both history and the future. “Tananarive Due once said that ‘the act of dreaming of ourselves with a future is an act of resistance.’ Afrofuturism is how I choose to dream,” he tells us. “Like any futurist, I extrapolate roadmaps to tomorrow. However, as an Afrofuturist, that visioning is rooted in black history and culture. Afrofuturism creates a framework to critique our present-day situation by being rooted in the past while providing glimpses of what possible futures might look like. Afrofuturism is about Remembering, Resilience, and Resistance. It’s the intersection of the black cultural lens with art, technology, and liberation. As a bridge connecting the past to the future, Afrofuturism embraces the concept of Sankofa, a word in the Twi language (Ghana) that means ‘go back and get it’ or ‘it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.’”

Broaddus has written librarian characters, as in his story “The Legacy of Alexandria,” which he calls his love letter to libraries. Ms. Jywanza, his librarian character, says, “It’s an audacious, defiant act of hope to preserve books. To declare that these stories matter. To try to create a present that connects us to the future. We are a story that endures.”

Broaddus played a key role in restoring the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library and the Mari E. Evans Residency, which he established as a part of its restoration. “I always wanted my art to have a real-world impact, so this was huge for me,” he tells us. “But that’s also the first lesson I had to unlearn: It wasn’t about ‘me,’ it was about ‘we.’ The experience was about community accountability and relearning that being a librarian, a steward of culture, is a powerful responsibility. It’s about continuing the story of community resilience. That Afrofuturist practice of looking to the future, training up a new generation of artists and leaders.”

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When Broaddus thinks about his work in literacy and community building, two quotes come to mind. “The first is from one of my characters in Sweep of Stars, Jaha, an elder in Muungano: ‘A storyteller is a master strategist. A skilled griot sees people as characters, participants in a tale. They apply motives and goals to people, because stories are driven by them.’ The other is from Lucille Clifton, who said, ‘We cannot create what we cannot imagine.’”

He is inspired by the West African tradition of the griot: a storyteller and oral historian who preserves and shares the traditions of their people. “I used to lament that I was ‘just a writer’ when faced with the problems of the world and yet charged to use my gifts and talents to make it a better place,” he tells us. “But this also makes me a community griot.”

Broaddus sees his griot role as a calling. “I am charged with telling the story of my community, to see, name, and celebrate my neighbors as gifts and treasures,” he says. “To preserve our history. To challenge, critique, speak truth to power. To preserve and proclaim our stories, to provide reminders that build our collective resilience. I am storytelling about our community because we have to control our narratives. If we don’t, we know that the news, police, and politicians will.”

He knows that this work is crucial. “As a librarian, as a writer, as a teacher, I am cognizant of the fact that we have a sacred responsibility,” he says. “Because I am a writer, I choose my words carefully, so let me repeat that: We have a sacred responsibility.”

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He tells us:

“As writers, we are the creators of stories.

As librarians, we are the keepers of stories.

We are the cultural and institutional memory of our society.

As teachers, we have the responsibility to pass those stories down.

The stories that shape us as people.

The stories that shape us as a culture.

The stories that shape future generations.

This is how we begin to create the future we want to see. Together. To help make the world a better place. Together.”

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