African American Storytelling in Sequential Art Panel Discussion (CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS)
4:00-6:30pm, Thursday, September 29, 2016 – Refreshments will be served!
While most of us are familiar with the centrality of storytelling and oral tradition in African American literature, we may not realize the role they have played in the visual arts as well. Comic books and graphic novels are not just a medium of visual culture that speaks mainly to a white audience interested in depicting their version of heroes and villains. Throughout the years, sequential artists have added the stories of African Americans to the familiar exploits both of superheroes and ordinary people. The everyday lives, history and literature of African Americans brought to the graphic page have added a new dimension to the African American visual storytelling tradition. Join us as we bring together scholars to share their insights about sequential art’s impact on African American storytelling. CAS Assistant Professor Ross Barrett will speak to the art historical tradition of African American storytelling through its visual imagery. Comic book artist, Joel Christian Gill (CFA ’04) will discuss his graphic novels that depict African American male characters in little known African American stories. University of Iowa Professor Deborah Elizabeth Whaley will address the depiction of Black women in comic books and graphic novels. Dr. Mary Anne Boelcskevy of the African American Studies Program will moderate and lead audience discussion. Join us for what promises to be an exciting event!
Speaker: Joel Christian Gill (CFA ’04), Chair of Foundations at the New Hampshire Institute of Art
Telling New Stories
In Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History (Fulcrum, 2014), alumnus Joel Christian Gill (CFA’04) brings to light nine little-known African American stories. With words and pictures by Gill, Strange Fruit offers not superheroes but what Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls “extraordinary-ordinary black folks making ‘a way out of no way.’” Mr. Gill will share his insights as a working visual artist with us.
Speaker: Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, Associate Professor of American Studies and African American Studies at the University of Iowa:
Women of African Descent in Sequential Art
While we may be more familiar with male characters such as Nick Fury, Falcon, and Black Panther, Dr. Deborah Elizabeth Whaley opens up the female tradition for us in her study, Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Animé (U of Washington, 2016). Her book examines the treatment of the Black female subject in sequential art. Her investigation explores “the process by which Black women metaphorically remark upon or remake ideas of the self, the nation state, and belonging within the nation” (182). Dr. Whaley will add a crucial perspective to the consideration of African American storytelling in sequential art.
Moderator: Mary Anne Boelcskevy, Senior Lecturer, Master Level, African American Studies at Boston University
This project is supported in part by an Arts Grant from The BU Arts Initiative – Office of the Provost www.bu.edu/arts. Also supported by the BU Center for the Humanities, BU School of Visual Arts, BU Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.