On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, the School of Education hosted a specially themed event exploring how comics have evolved beyond entertainment to become powerful voices that can educate and inspire readers. The event featured a presentation by Enrique García and an interview discussion with Barbara Brandon-Croft and Tara Nakashima Donahue, and moderated by Darnel Degand.

This event coincided with the exhibition “STILL: Racism in America, a Retrospective in Cartoons,” which showcased the work of pioneering father/daughter cartoonists the late Brumsic Brandon, Jr. and Barbara Brandon-Croft.

Our Speakers:

Dr. Enrique García, Professor of Hispanic Visual Culture at Middlebury College, researches international Hispanic/Latinx genre cinema and comic books. He has published several journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles about comics and history. He has also published two academic books: Cuban Cinema After the Cold War and The Hernandez Brothers: Love, Rockets, and Alternative Comics. He is currently preparing his book on Puerto Rico and the Superhero Genre for publication.

Barbara Brandon-Croft was the nation’s first Black woman cartoonist to cross the color line into the mainstream press in 1989 with her cartoon feature “Where I’m Coming From,” which appeared in The Detroit Free Press. In 1991 Universal Press Syndicate began distributing her comic strip in more than sixty mainstream newspapers internationally until 2005. Barbara continues to post new comics online today.

Tara Nakashima Donahue curated “STILL: Racism in America, a Retrospective in Cartoons.” She also curated the “From Panel to Panel” cartoon/comic art series for Medialia Gallery in NYC from 2008 to 2020. She has curated and consulted for the Brumsic Brandon Jr. Art Trust since 2015, and is also Director of Blueprint, a Supported Education program in New York City.