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Kerry Nolan: It's All Of It on WNYC, I'm Kerry Nolan in for Alison Stewart. Every year the Schomburg Center's Black Comic Book Festival draws animators, illustrators, readers, independent publishers, and fans all in one place. For the first time since COVID, the festival is in person and this year marks the 11th annual event.

This year's lineup includes screenings, cosplay showcases, workshops, and panel discussions. For example, there's a panel for youth comic book artists to discuss their creative process and another on banned books and diversity in comic books. The 11th Annual Black Comic Book Festival kicks off this Friday, April 14th, and it wraps up on Saturday the 15th. To give us a preview of the festival, lead producer Kadiatou joins us today. She's the manager of Education Programs and Outreach for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Kadiatou, welcome to All Of It.

Kadiatou: Thank you so much for having me, Kerry.

Kerry: Kadiatou, last year the Schomburg Center celebrated a decade of the Black Comic Book Festival, which was co-founded in 2013. What are the origins of the festival?

Kadiatou: Our origin story actually begins around 2002. At the time, the goal was to increase literacy for young people at the Schomburg Center. The Schomburg is just a huge resource in the Harlem community. It's also a huge resource in our global community, especially when it comes to reading and literacy. The comic books festival was started by educators and artists within the Schomburg Center who wanted to elevate this art form that existed in Black culture for decades. Like much of the 11 million objects at the Schomburg Center and within our collections, the art form of Black comic books stands on its own.

It's a representation not just a response to the lack of diversity in comics or mainstream comics, it was just an opportunity to make sure that people understood that this art form had existed and that for Black people and Black youth, in particular, to see themselves represented on the page and also now even more so on the screen.

It really started as a way to bring in a community that was always there but to strengthen and spotlight them within the Harlem environment. That's basically what really started it. Now it's ballooned to one of the most iconic events in the city and at the Schomburg Center where we see, at least in a given weekend for this event, up to 10,000 folks.

Patrons come in just to view our marketplace, interact with creatives, writers, artists, and also join our cosplay showcases. It's just been an incredible 11 years of representation and highlighting a community that has done so much for media and representation, not only for Black people but for all people to see how diverse humanity can really be on the page.

Kerry: Who are some of the bigger names in the industry that people might recognize at the festival this year?

Kadiatou: We have one of our heavy hitter hitters as usual, John Jennings will be there. We have coming back since 2020, Karama Horne who just recently wrote Protectors of Wakanda which is basically the Dora Milaje story. If you understand Marvel and Black Panther comics, you understand that the Dora Milaje those amazing warriors who to support and fight for T'Challa. We have them, we have Ron Wimberly who's an incredible cartoonist, artist.

Tim Fielder, who's an Afrofuturist graphic novelist, will be leading one of our favorite workshops for kids but also adults, but mainly for kids. It's our How to Draw Black Comics Workshop. Those are just some of our heavy hitters who've been with us for many years, been supporting this work. We're just proud that they can support us in person as we return this year.

Kerry: It's not just fan-based the way some comic cons or other cons are. There's a business aspect too that I thought was fascinating. You have a panel called The Business of Comics and Sequential Narrative. What skills are being taught about the business of comics and moving fluidly through the industry?

Kadiatou: What's so special about the Black Comic Book Festival is that it's really an indie space. Independent comic writers, artists, curators, animators are really coming in and taking up the space. The goal of the business of comics aspect is to help up-and-coming artists, writers, creators, comic book writers, and also not only just up and coming but people who are currently in this industry and trying to push forward and get their work out there into larger audiences, into more hands. It's an opportunity for folks to learn how to budget, how to network, how to pitch your work and receive feedback from industry professionals.

We have folks like T.J. Sterling who runs RAE Comics and has been in the industry for almost decades, honestly, who's coming in and hosting the panel so that folks in the audience can really understand what it takes to get your work off the ground and to get it backed by funders, investors, and just an opportunity for people to share information freely. I think that speaks to why the Schomburg Center exists and why it's so important the access to information should not be difficult for people who really want to make a change, make opportunities for themselves and their communities.

That's one of the most popular panels that we've had previously. Many people have requested it as an opportunity to say like, "How do I do a Kickstarter successfully? How do I fundraise for my comic book? How do I get this amazing idea off the ground and into an actual bookstore?" That's an opportunity for folks who are interested or folks who've been in the industry to really gain knowledge from experienced industry professionals.

Kerry: If you're just joining me, my guest is Kadiatou Tubman. She is the manager of Education Programs and Outreach for the Black Comic Book Festival which is happening this upcoming weekend April 14th and 15th at the Schomburg Center. Kadiatou, for the last two years this festival has been virtual. When you decided to bring it back into an in-person event, what new ideas did you take into consideration?

Kadiatou: One of the critical ideas or just things we're being cautious of, the understanding that COVID is still happening, we're not yet over this important event that’s happened over the past two, three years. One thing we've been really careful about is just making sure that people are choosing to be careful and participating in the event as safely as possible.

Another thing we were really hoping is that we could really bring in more programming that just not only takes place at the Schomburg Center but we'll be screening online and continuing that online platform for folks who to be quite honest, during the pandemic were watching us from all over the world. We had folks joining us in from Japan, from Nigeria, from across the country even in California and Miami.

The biggest thing is just making sure it’s accessible to so many people, whether they're in Harlem, or whether they're joining us online. Another aspect really stretching our exhibitor marketplace is the highlight of our events, so the opportunity to meet and buy comic books from independent folks, writers, established writers, published writers. It's just an opportunity to just meet those folks, talk to them on the ground.

One thing we made sure of this year was to just increase representation within our community. Blackness is not a monolith so we wanted to make sure that we were representing queer voices even more, Black queer voices, we were representing Black women voices even more in our exhibitor marketplace. You have folks like Shauna Grant who writes an incredible comic book about little Black girls who loved the color pink. She also has a great graphic novel on Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin that she'll be featuring at the festival.

We also have a teacher who is now a comic book writer as well who does comic books on trans Afrofuturistic characters. It's just expanding who is represented at this marketplace, and who was represented at the festival has also been a critical way to bring in more diverse audiences to the event.

Kerry: I think importantly, there's also a Banned Books and Diversity in Comics this coming Friday. Last year, a record number of titles, more than 2,500 according to the American Library Association were targeted for censorship. How does this year's festival advocate for representing a range of stories in comics?

Kadiatou: That's the beauty of this event. For the past 10 years, that has been the whole point. Even without the more recent banning of books, we've always had to deal with particularly books by Black authors. Books dealing about race have always been contentious in this country and oftentimes it's harder for folks in school spaces, especially, to get access to these things. Like I said in the beginning, the whole point is to increase literacy and representation.

The beautiful thing is that the festival has always been a space to provide access to these incredibly diverse, beautiful, challenging, and complicated stories. What we want to do even more is push the idea that comics are an incredible point of literacy and that there is a great amount of accessibility for all types of learners who enter through a comic book.

Sometimes reading a long textbook without images can be somewhat daunting for some readers, but it's a beautiful way to get an entry point into literacy and expanding your way of seeing the world and understanding what it means to read. I think our banned books conversation is more of just how are we continuing the work to make sure that diverse stories and ideas, the possibilities, and the wide ranges of what it means to be human can continue to show up in our work. We understand the real pressures, political forces, et cetera, all those things are real [crosstalk].

Kerry: Kadiatou, I'm so sorry that's where we have to leave it. The 11th Annual Black Comic Book Festival is this Friday and Saturday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Kadiatou Tubman, thank you so much for being with us on All Of It. We'll have a longer conversation next time.

Kadiatou: You’re welcome. [chuckles]

Kerry: One of the guests that this weekend's Black Comic Book Festival is author and illustrator Elizabeth Colomba. Up next is my conversation with her and author Aurelie Levy about their graphic novel Queenie: Godmother of Harlem. Stay with us.

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