A History of Dissent: Illustrated Journalism

Oriana Leckert is a writer, editor, publishing and crowdfunding consultant, and cultural hipstorian [sic]. She is the author of Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture & Creativity, which chronicles DIY and the underground in Brooklyn, and her writing “focuses on strange art and unusual culture, as well as the inner workings and bizarre beauty of New York City.” She has written for a range of outlets, including Vice, Gothamist, Atlas Obscura, Artsy, New York Post, Hyperallergic, and Slate. She has also “served as a freelance editor for more than 100 publishers and websites, as well as offering a broad array of editorial services to individuals.” 

Christian Staebler is a graphic designer and illustrator. His work includes layouts for books, magazines, industrial booklets, and packagins, while his illustration work includes client publishers like Hachette and Nathan. He is also the creator and webmaster of the official website of legendary Native American rock band Redbone. If you’ve heard the hit song “Come and Get Your Love” in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ve heard Redbone. Now Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band (IDW Publishing) tells the story of the band and its cultural, political, and social importance. Brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas were talented Native American rock musicians that had an impact on the 1960s Sunset Strip. They influenced The Doors and jammed with Jimmy Hendrix before he was “Jimi.” Soon, there was the idea of a band made up of all Native Americans. Determined to control their creative vision and maintain their cultural identity, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1969. But as the American Indian Movement gained momentum the band took a stand, choosing pride in their ancestry over continued commercial reward. In Redbone, authors Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni with artist Thibault Balahy, working in cooperation of the Vegas family, create a book that is part biography and part research journalism. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, noted that “Musicians with heart put their people before profits in an inspirational tale. Well-researched and well-paced, this book will introduce a new generation to the music and

Jared Reinmuth has worked as an actor, writer, teacher, director, and songwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2016. His adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, debuted at the Hackensack Cultural Arts Center. He began his writing collaboration with Frank “Big Black” Smith in 1997, while assisting his father, famed Attica attorney Dan Meyers. In 2017, Reinmuth joined forces with co-creator and artist Améziane, Smith’s wife Pearl Battle Smith, and composer Alex Tichane to complete the work started by Smith: the graphic novel Big Black: Stand At Attica.

Candacy Taylor is an author, photographer and cultural documentarian. Her work has been featured in over 50 media outlets including the New Yorker and The Atlantic. Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the “black travel guide to America.” At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because black travelers couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Taylor’s Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America  (Harry N. Abrams) celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. Brent Leggs, Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund “With passion, conviction, and clarity, Taylor’s book unearths a fascinating and true—if not willfully obscured—history of African American activism and entrepreneurship in the United States. This remarkable study broadens our understanding of black life, leisure, and struggles for equality in twentieth-century America”

Derf Backderf is a bestselling, award-winning writer and cartoonist. His comic strip The City debuted in 1990 and appeared in over 140 publications, including The Village Voice, Chicago Reader and The Los Angeles Reader. He retired the strip in 2013 to focus on books. His graphic novels include Punk Rock & Trailer Parks, Trashed (which earned him an Eisner Award), and the international bestseller, My Friend Dahmer. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, 4 students were killed and 9 shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same Guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. For Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart.  Fifty years later those deaths remains a moving and troubling story about the price of dissent— a timely reminder considering recent events. In a starred review the Library Journal called it ” An incendiary corrective to the myths and misconceptions surrounding these events and a memorial to the lives lost or forever altered that should be required reading for all Americans.”