Cathy + e talk about Restorative / Transformative Justice practices + how they interact with comics, schools + communities. e defines RJ/TJ, why it’s important, + discusses ways to remove policing from our communities. Cathy talks about educational uses of RJ/TJ + how schools are microcosms of our larger world.
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DaD Presents, Episode 3: Art + Social Justice Collectives with Priscilla Carrion. Priscilla Carrion is a visual artist, educator + member of many group collectives + non-profits in Providence with a focus on art + social justice. Priscilla discusses her history building community within collectives, starting out as a student + moving towards volunteer, staff + board positions. We discuss local groups Ecas Theater, Sista Fire, New Urban Arts + Girls Rock! Rhode Island.
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Cathy + e talk about Young Adult (YA) books + readers! e starts out by sharing the history of the YA genre, how books began to be marketed to an adolescent audience, + who is actually reading them. Cathy then talks about young adults in classrooms, including reading habits, new technologies + how comics can be used to teach a broader understanding of literacy.
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“Where do ideas come from?” Ideation is something that can stump many art students. We never want to tell students what they should make! On the flip side, doodling is spontaneous, free, and unrestrained drawing. Every student, no matter their artistic skill or background, can doodle. How can the power of doodling be harnessed to help students create, develop, and feel confident in their original ideas?
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Happy May Day! Cathy + e talk about labor and comics. They begin by defining what capitalism and commodification is. e goes over the history of attempts by cartoonists to unionize, then Cathy discusses theory about why we should make art as a community. We are stronger together!
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It is deeply important for us to be engaging with children of all ages in topics that have to do with LGBTQQIA people. In this post, I am going to offer my thoughts on why it is appropriate for all ages and how we can approach the subject with young people in our life.
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On Drawing a Dialogue’s 20th episode, Cathy + e share their personal histories as working cartoonists in academic settings. Cathy talks about her new graphic novel “The Breakaways,” and how her work as an artist + educator informed the book. e talks about their current research + scholarship practice as a University of Florida PhD student.
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Cathy + e discuss GIRLS! e talks about the history of Grrrl zines, including Riot Grrrl, zine culture + canonization. Cathy discusses the history of the education of women and girls in the United States, the feminization of teaching, + the benefits of programs focused on marginalized genders, such as Girl Scouts + the Girls Rock Camp Alliance.
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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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