ghosts of the river - graphic novel on immigration

From Favianna Rodriguez's website:


I need your help to make a Graphic Novel - Please Donate!
I've taken on a new challenge - to create a graphic novel! And I need your help.

To donate: http://www.shadowlightghosts.org


For the most part, I've focused my art practice on posters and prints, in which I tell a story in a single panel. But now, I'm stepping into a whole new area called the sequential narrative, also known as a comic book or graphic novel. Since April of this year, I have been begun work on a 60-page graphic novel that explores topics of migration, border enforcement, deportation, detention, and anti-immigrant violence.

This new venture is a continuation of the 2009 shadow puppet play, GHOSTS OF THE RIVER, my first theatrical collaboration with ShadowLight Productions and Octavio Solis. Working in shadow puppet theater was my first introduction to the combinaton of motion and image, and I was instantly hooked! (photo on right from play)

The next phase of this collaboration is to take the stories to a graphic format. I will restage some of the original stories from the play, converting them into a graphic novel, mixing images from the original stage production and exploring new graphic styles. The stories range from a fantastical ghost revenge story to a heart-wrenching story of a Chicano boy’s lost summer as he faced racism for the first time. Some stories will follow the frame-by-frame comic book style while others will incorporate various printmaking approaches most employed in my work, such as linoleum block print, wood block, and monoprint.

For this project I am fusing my expertise in printmaking with sequential storytelling, which is allowing me to develop a poignant body of work around the current immigration crisis.

I need your help to make this book a reality. I have secured a grant for $10,000 from the East Bay Community Foundation. The catch is that the award has to be matched dollar to dollar ONLY with contributions from individual donors such as yourself! I am raising the funds with the producer of this project, ShadowLight Productions.

Visit here to donate: http://www.shadowlightghosts.org/

The timing for this project is urgent, with migrants being deported at an alarming rate of 1,100 per day. Much of the public dialogue is still laced with hate, stereotypes, violence and fear. My graphic novel will share real, human stories and provide an opportunity for readers to understand the complexity of how anti-immigrant laws affect people through the vehicle of visual art and graphic storytelling. I am confident that a pop culture medium, such as the graphic novel, is the perfect next step for me as an artist.

Thank you so much for your consideration. Love, Justice and Art!