In this episode, Cathy + e discuss the social role of masculinity. e presents the definitions of masculinity and its feminist origins, the theories of sociologist Raewyn Connell, + moves into the theory of today. Comics discussion moves beyond the image into social relations + how production can be gendered. Cathy discusses masculinity in adolescence, the violence of it being taken to the extreme, and how art education + comics has a role in the gendered lives of students.
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Satoko is a Japanese student studying in America, and she gets a surprise when meeting her new roommate, Nada! Nada is also an international student but from Saudi Arabia, and she’s Muslim. Satoko and Nada is a wonderful comic about cultural similarities and differences, and keeping an open mind about new friendships!
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Cathy + e discuss how trans memoirists document their experiences, + have an in-depth analysis on the current school climate for trans students within the United States. e talks about the history of whose stories are categorized as autobiography, and how the trans memoir has evolved throughout time. Cathy talks about the current school climate for transgender and gender non-conforming students, including bathroom access, the legalities under Title IX, and “safe spaces” in schools.
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In this episode, Cathy + e discuss the history of incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and how prison art + writing are tools of radical resistance. e discusses the development of mass incarceration, the history of prison writing, + how imprisoned radical intellectuals resist the carceral system. They look at the ABO Comix anthology as an example of this resistance. Cathy presents the school-to-prison pipeline, how discriminatory discipline practices perpetuate the system, + the history of juvenile court.
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In this episode, Cathy + e create a biography for Jackie Ormes. Born in 1911, Ormes was a cartoonist, reporter, fashion designer and community organizer during an important century of American history. Cathy + e discuss the seminal role Ormes had in the black press during a pre-civil rights movement America, notably challenging derogatory caricatures of black women of the time.
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In this episode, Cathy + e explore how the multimodal experience of comics is ripe with possibilities for engaging with neurodiversity. e discusses disability theories applied to reading and creating comics. Cathy talks about the educational applications through Social-Emotional Learning.
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Noshiro and Sanada are your typical high school students, except there are rumors that Sanada might be gay. That Blue Sky Feeling is a slice-of-life comic with a wonderful and sensitive depiction of the insecurities teenagers can feel about sexual orientation.
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Feelings Faces, an Elementary Social-Emotional Arts Activity. The idea of this activity was to use the facial expression of cartooning to help build students' empathy, and to create tangible images for their intangible feelings.
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Cathy + e discuss the history of fatphobia and how fat-negative bias was developed in North America. They talk about repercussions in the media + how it still affects us today, including how children develop their sense of self + others.
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6-Panel Stories, a Collaborative Comic Art Activity. At a local middle school, I had the pleasure of teaching a 5-week after school comics club. In this activity, students each have the opportunity to contribute to a 6-panel comic story.
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DaD Presents, Episode 2: Zine Curator + Archivist Malana Krongelb. Malana Krongelb is the librarian at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the founder and curator of Brown University’s first zine collection. Started in 2016, the collection focuses on sharing and preserving zines by marginalized creators and consists of titles from 1974-2018.
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In the longest episode yet, Cathy + e present research on how racism affected the development of the visual language of cartooning. Spanning the 1700s to today, this episode explores the history of art education, caricature and how-to-draw books, and maps the history of minstrelsy in America, creating connections that informed early cartooning. In-depth research offers multiple samples of primary sources, including the art of “physiognomy,” the pseudoscience of judging character from facial features.
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The Prince and the Dressmaker is about fashion, self-expression, and the creative spirit. Sebastian and Frances have dreams, but there are so many roadblocks in their way!
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In this episode, Cathy + e look at the history of queer comics in the American underground and build a biography for the cartoonist + illustrator Jeffrey Catherine Jones. Queer erasure is examined while a history is looked at, researched, and built.
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In this episode, Cathy + e examine the art historical idea of “the canon.” They discuss definitions of the word, the history of the practice, canonization’s criticisms, and how comics are understood within the framework.
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Cathy + e take a look at censorship, banned books, and why some things are deemed appropriate for kids and some things aren’t. e looks at the history of obscenity and how societal censorship suppresses marginalized voices. Cathy examines children’s learning development in reading and art, how graphic novels get categorized, and why.
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Figure drawing is a well-known art exercise for students of all ages, and can be approached in many different ways. The excitement and joy of cartooning is not the precision of drawing, but the communication through marks and forms. Therefore, my approach to figure drawing with my students is not about capturing the perfect form, but instead capturing the emotion that the figure is conveying.
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Historically, mass-produced media is monickered as “low culture,” while fine art is “high.” Where does this dichotomy come from, how are comics treated in this binary, and how can educators take advantage of it? In this episode we dissect the history of accessible media and how comics in the classroom can benefit. Live from Comic Arts Los Angeles!
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DaD Presents, Episode 1: Educator Walker Mettling. Walker Mettling is the co-founder of the Providence Comics Consortium, which is a series of comics classes taught in Providence Community Libraries. They have produced over 25 books of kids' and adults' comics over the past 7 years.
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The Comic Warriors were 12 mighty young people, ages 5 - 13. Here you will find their class anthology, collecting all 12 stories, drawn + printed in August 7 - 11, 2017.
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