Lillian E Smith Graphic Memoir Download

Last spring, I assigned a graphic memoir project in my Literature and Composition Graphic Memoir class. As part of the class, I constructed my own graphic memoir alongside my students. For this post, I want to share with you my finished project and my artist statement, a brief discussion of some of the choices I made when creating the graphic memoir. In a future post, I will go into more detail about the layout and design choices I used in the project.

From the beginning of this project, I knew that I wanted to…

Recently, I had a conversation with Jennifer Morrison, for my Multicultural American Literature class, on Ernest Gaines’ A Gathering of Old Men. At one point, we began talking about Fix and the ways that Gaines represents him, specifically through the eyes of an outsider to the community, Sully. This topic led me to eventually ask, “Who is the villain in the novel?” On the surface, it seems like Fix, but that is not necessarily the case. I posited that the villain of the novel is white supremacy, and Jennifer argued that it’s capitalism. This part of the conversation really made…

If you have read my blog over the last couple of years, you know I have been thinking a lot about whether or not we can truly know ourselves. At the core of this inquiry is whether or not we can ever disentangle ourselves from all of the cultural, familial, and other influences that pour themselves into us on a daily basis. …

As I read Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline” recently, the interactions between ‘Malia and Frank Laurent stood out. The story, essentially, centers around Copper, the son of Frank’s brother Walter who raped Copper’s mother. Copper has returned to the Laurent plantation to claim what is his, by birth. Essentially, he arrives to overthrow the system that denies him an existence due to the fact that his mother was Black. It does not matter that Walter raped Copper’s mother. What matters, for Frank and others, is that his mother was Black.

While Copper’s return and the ways that Frank and the other characters…

Last post I discussed «Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din» (“Easy to be a rebel in your basement light”) from Karpe’s Heisann Montebello (2016)and the ways that the song addresses xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist rhetoric. Today, I want to continue some of that same discussion by looking at another song on the album, «Attitudeproblem» (“Attitude Problem”). This song confronts how we use language and directly points out the metaphorical use of language in hip hop. As well, it addresses the trappings of modern society, trappings that hinder us from ignoring the suffering around us.

An important aspect to remember…

My research into Norwegian hip hop is ever evolving. I keep finding new artists and songs everyday, but the one group that has really caught my attention is Karpe Diem, a group that consists of Magdi (Egyptian/Norwegian) and Chirag (Indian/Norwegian). Their 2015–2016 project Heisann Montebello (Hello Montebello) exists as a political statement on behalf of individuals who ask, as Pumba puts it, «Hvor faen jeg ifra?» Heisann Montebello consists of seven songs, released over the course of two years, with accompanying music videos for each one. …

In Soledad Marimbo’s Retazos Una conversación con Sylvia Molloy, the Argentinian writer speaks about memory, writing, and the passage of time. When talking about two of the houses where she lived — her parent’s house in Argentina and one she owned in Long Island — Molloy talks about their similarities, specifically the courtyards. The two houses, due to some of the similarities, mingle within her mind, joining together into a memory that did not actually occur but that arose out of events that actually took place. …

A couple of years ago, I read David F. Walker’s Nighthawk series “Hate Makes Hate.” This was the first time I had heard of Nighthawk (Raymond Kane), so I didn’t know much about his backstory except what I looked up online. Even without that knowledge, Walker’s series can stand on its own because it focuses on current issues that plague our nation today: police brutality, the rise of white nationalism, class divisions, gentrification, and countless other issues. I do not want to delve into each of these topics today; instead, I want to look at a couple of aspects from…