Recently, my essay, “I Have a Secret,” appeared in Down Yonder ‘Zine, and Adam Jordan asked me some questions about the essay on Twitter. I wrote this essay back in the summer of 2020 following the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery and the accosting of Christian Copper in Central Park as he was birdwatching. It is one of the most … Read More Writing “I Have a Secret”
In a recent post, I shared my conversation with Michael Dando about Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Along with talking about Maus with Dando, I spoke with Eir-Anne Edgar about Maus volume II for my Multicultural American Literature course. Eir-Anne recently spoke about McMinn County’s banning of Maus for an event at West Virginia University. When students read and discussed Maus volume I, they also read … Read More Conversation with Eir-Anne Edgar on “Maus”
Every semester, especially when I teach asynchronous courses, I try to set up conversations with scholars and authors so that students don’t just hear and see me on the screen as they listen to the lecture. As I thought about Art Spiegelman’s Maus, I reached out to Michael Dando. I’ve spoken with Dando before about comics for his classes, specifically Luke Cage, and he … Read More Conversation with Michael Dando on “Maus”
+ comics, graphic memoir, graphic novels, jerry craft, jonathan flowers, new kid, ontological expansiveness, shannon sullivan
As I was thinking about texts for my Multicultural American Literature class this semester, parents in Katy ISD in Texas tried to ban Jerry Craft’s New Kid and other works from the schools. Last October, Craft was scheduled for a presentation in the district, and Bonnie Anderson, a white parent, started a petition to get the event cancelled. She told NBC News, “It is … Read More Ontological Expansiveness and Jerry Craft’s “New Kid”
+ comics, dispacement, graphic novels, japanese american internment, kiku hughes, supreme court, world war ii
In my Multicultural American Literature course this semester, I am teaching Kiku Hughes’ Displacement alongside John Okada’s No-No Boy and George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy. Each of these texts focuses on the incarceration of thousands of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II, and each of these focuses on the intergenerational trauma of incarceration. The generational effects of trauma run through multiple … Read More Conversation with Kiku Hughes
Interminable Rambling 