2 GREAT AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION REPPING BLACK WOMEN
Last Saturday, we went to a rare authors’ panel @BettiOno gallery featuring two very dope authors who happen to be black women: Jewels Smith and Renina Jarmon.
Jewels Smith is a sociology grad and city college teacher who wrote (H)afrocentric– a “feminist Boondocks” type comic with an explicit goal of expanding representations of nuanced black women, and dissecting social issues like race, sexuality, and gentrification through the events and conversations in the comics.
Renina Jarmon, a college Women’s Studies teacher and regular blogger at Crunk Feminist Collective, and Racialicious who wrote Black Girls are From the Future– a collection of essays breaking down pop culture and digital literacy from the perspective of engaged black girls covering topics from Lean In feminism, to Fruitvale Station, natural hair, and relating Erykah Badu/Janelle Monae/Octavia Butler through time travel.
As college teachers of sociology and women’s studies (respectively), Jewels and Renina gave some amazing insight into pop issues, political issues, lifestyle, and their quest as media makers in this digital age.
~*Highlights from the talk*~
- Dealing with gentrification – J: “On a personal level, be in solidarity with whoever is on the lease.” R: “In terms of city planning or policy making, an ideal vision matches a range of incomes of those who live in the city. Figure out who’s the most vulnerable person in the room and protect them, and remember the vision.”
- Erotic capital – R: Social capital that you wield solely because of how you were born out the womb or how you look, and if that matches up with what is deemed beautiful in the society you are in. Making it easier for beautiful people to
- Yonce and the kids – R: Getting young people to listen to you is already a win. If we look at Beyonce’s strong work ethic and confidence in herself to do what she wants? Fsho! *BUT* As far as what she uses that power and spotlight for? Let’s just say she and I have different definitions of feminism.
- How to keep going – As creatives, or whoever, trying to start something, how do we keep going when we don’t know what we are doing? – J: From the very begining you gotta be believe in your project, especially when you’re not sure how it’ll come together. I wrote volume 1 of (H)AFROCENTRIC without an illustrator and went up to the first one I liked hella confident and then for volume 2 when up to another one like THIS IS ABOUT TO BLOW UP. You gotta stay into your own work. You must create your own opportunity.
- Not selling out – How to balance “success” with intentions and not selling out? – J: Your goals will change each year, for example I initially wanted to use the comic in my classroom, and now I really want a cartoon- however keeping the nuances and radical politics is very important to me. When deciding what “success” is and planning for it, remind yourself why you are doing it and who you are accountable to.
RT if that made you think of 2Chainz “they ask me what I do and who I do it for?” There’s a reason we asked that to everyone we interviewed at Afropunk!
The next event in the series is QUEENDOM: performances and panels covering Women in Media and Hip Hop
~*Browntourage bonus feature*~
Behind the scenes, Browntourage got to get in some 1-on-1 q’z in with Jewels of (H)afrocentric:
What puts the H in (H)afrocentric?
The H in (H)afrocentric is for a couple of reasons. One, to signify the two main characters who are mixed black and white, hence where the half comes into play. The pronunciation and spelling of (H)afrocentric comes from mixing half + afrocentric = (H)afrocentric.
The second reason follows the tagline, “Because it’s hard being Afrocentric in a Eurocentric world.
And the definition of (H)afrocentric is as follows:
Hafrocentric\h-a-fro-sen-trik\
What topics are you most looking forward to engaging readers on with Volume 3?
I’m interested in the complicated relationship we all have to gentrification. More broadly, how do race, class, gender and sexuality impact our relationship to the displacement that is happening in cities across the U.S.? I’m constantly in conversation with what I read as policy and interactions that are largely shaped by anti-black racism. I want to know what people desire for their communities.
I’m also interested to see if people engage with the interactive parts of the book; the qr code that lead to an online mixtape, as well as other qr codes that lead to videos exploring topics outside the immediate storyline of the book. At the end of Volume 3, there is also a section that asks readers to engage @hafrocentric by tweeting, instagraming, orfacebook-ing a drawn picture of how they’d like to see their communities. In this way, I ask readers to start from a future oriented place and dream about what they want the world to be like.
And is the comic book funny? I hope so. Let me know!
What the funnest part of making comics?
I literally created another world. I think fantasizing and dreaming is one of the most freeing and fun parts of this process. There is no wrong. There’s only creating.
I also get to make humorous, some not so humorous situations and that is a beautiful cathartic experience.
Advice for people with comic book ideas?
Write about the things you are passionate about. And if you don’t know about a topic, do some research! Get a story editor or several eyes to look at your work. There is no one secret to doing a comic book. Find your lane, stick to it, believe in yourself and your ideas, and go for it!
There’s so much more I can write here and if you want some consulting you can reach out. And that reminds me, make sure your time is valued. We all gotta eat!