Appearing in Tent #3 | 11:00 am
Graphic Novel panel with Hazel Newlevant and V. Gagnon, moderated by Rachel Barry.
About the author
Sharon Lee De La Cruz is a storyteller, educator, and activist from New York City. Her research and practice are rooted at the intersection of STEM pedagogy, art, and social justice. Thanks to comic storytelling, she landed in the Tin House Summer Workshop and created her first graphic novel memoir, I’m a Wild Seed, in 2021. Kirkus Reviews called the work a “potent graphic memoir about the forming of one woman’s queer identity… [that] effectively portrays both the fears and joys of discovering one’s marginalized identity.” Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “the wit and exuberance found here marks her as a worthy new artist [in her] limber, playful debut collection.” De La Cruz received her master’s degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. An Assistant Arts Professor at ITP/IMA-NYU, she is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, Processing Foundation Fellowship, a TED Residency, and a 2021-22 Red Burns Teaching Fellow at ITP-NYU.
MFOB featured book: I’m a Wild Seed
I’m a Wild Seed is a collection of lively autobiographical comics guiding the reader through an understanding of queerness and what it means to one woman of color.
In this delightfully compelling, full-color graphic memoir, the author shares her process of undoing the effects of a patriarchal, colonial society on her self-image, her sexuality, and her concept of freedom. Reflecting on the ways in which oppression was the cause for her late bloom into queerness, we are invited to discover people and things in the author’s life that helped shape and inform her LGBTQ identity. And we come to an understanding of her holistic definition of queerness.
