“Comics will have an important role in creating our post-Covid world.”
– Dana Walrath
In case you were unable to join us for our third Drawing Together event, here is a recap of the exercises we did together. Our host was Dana Walrath, GMIC board member, artist, writer, and medical anthropologist. Our theme was “pandemic as a portal.”
Dana stated, “For me, the overwhelming emotions of these few months have been disgust and shame. It is one thing to teach and write about structural violence and structural racism, stigma, and genocide, but to actually see it unfold day by day demands action. What has kept keeps me going is the notion that we will reveal and surface everything that is broken so that we can create a new world order. Usually creating a new world order is in the realm of super heroes the hallmark of comics. These superheroes come in all shapes and sizes, even in the form of a rejected overweight bullied powerless white kid in middle America like Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown. We turn to superheroes to fix what we cannot in our real lives. But the truth is, we have agency and we all can, as Arundhati Roy has so brilliantly stated in her Financial Times essay, “The Pandemic as a Portal” that this is in our power.
She writes:
Drawing prompt: We can all step through the portal. Make any sort of comic drawing in response to these words. Show something that you will leave behind as you walk through the portal. Or draw something you will slay in the world or in yourself with your magic super hero powers, or something that you imagine will make the world healthy and safe for all children. (12 minutes)
If you’d like to see what others drew and/or share your drawing, follow #DrawingTogetherGM on social media.
Leave a Comment