Recorded May 11, 2021
Comic books have been a fixture for American children for generations. Often relegated (and sometimes maligned) to pulp fiction and cheap, simplistic entertainment, and even regulated and censored for a time in part due to congressional concerns about glorification of violence and even communism, comics today have reached beyond capes and monsters to tackle complex and significant cultural issues, including some of America’s most difficult histories.
Visual History: Interpreting the Past Through Comics explores how creators have used comics and graphic novels to tell the stories of the Civil Rights Movement, Japanese internment, and our current rash of police violence against African-Americans in new and accessible ways that reach wide audiences that may not frequent library stacks or academic lectures.
Panelists
- Justin Eisinger is the co-author of the New York Times best selling graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, George Takei’s story of childhood internment during World War II. He was previously the Editorial Director of Graphic Novels & Collections at IDW Publishing.
- Brian Hawkins is the co-author of Black Cotton, a comic set in an alternate reality where white people are an oppressed minority in America and a black police officer connected to a powerful family kills a white woman. This story makes clear allusions to the murder of George Floyd and others by police in American, grappling with an incredibly current history in a creative way.
- David Walker is an award-winning comic writer of The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History. He is also a celebrated scholar of African-American cinema and scribe for numerous titles for Marvel, DC Comics, Dynamite, and Dark Horse, including Luke Cage, Occupy Avengers, Cyborg, and Shaft.
This event is generously sponsored by the Lowell Institute.
Upcoming Events
- Massacre and Memory Tour
A half-mile guided walking tour that explores the surprisingly small geography of colonial Boston to uncover the roots of the Boston Massacre and includes entry to the Old State House and Old South Meeting House.Read more → - Changemakers: A History Slam
JUNE 12: Our first-ever History Slam – a night full of raucous history presentations (we dare you!), music, drinks… and a little friendly competition!Read more →
Recent Online Events
- Cry Havoc! Legislative Violence in America
VIDEO: Explore an iconic artifact from the Revolutionary Spaces’ collection and the legacy of what this American relic symbolizes: violence perpetrated in the hallowed halls of Congress.Read more → - Unfinished Business Film Series
A film series exploring the legacy of protest, representation, and revolution embodied in our historical sites.Read more → - Joseph Warren, Medicine, and Activism
VIDEO: Explore the intersection of activism and medicine in this timely virtual panel discussion with scholars and doctors.Read more → - Violence, Revolution, and Memory
VIDEO | In commemoration of the Boston Massacre, this panel explores political violence, revolution, and memory in a global context.Read more → - Protest and Commemoration at the 1973 Boston Tea Party Anniversary
Who inherits a legacy of protest and revolution? Can we look back at a moment frozen in time and still march forward in the spirit of change?Read more → - Legacy of the Loyalists
A panel discussion on the legacy of Loyalists. How does the cultural memory of those early Americans left in the shadows transform over time?Read more →