Today, I did a Shero Talk & comic book workshop at John Muir Middle School in South LA. I spoke to a group of around 22 Black girls who were absolutely hilarious and super smart! While going over my backstory and showing off the photo of a three-year-old me playing my uncle’s Walkman, I once again asked if anyone knew what a Walkman was. These girls were older than the girls I spoke with last week, and I figured maybe one of them would know, but nope! And once again, I feel ancient.
After I finished showing my comic books, and comic book trailers, and going over the process of how I come up with ideas for my comic books, we dived right into the comic book workshop. Since this group of girls were older we did a page from my cheerleading comic book Squad Goals. Once again, their fantabulous instructor Nicole had printed out my comic book page on fancy paper to make it all the more special for the girls.
The Squad Goals page we worked on was full of conflict and conversation. The mean girl cheer squad was talking smack to my Wiley Moon Scorpions. I figured that this group of pre-teen/teenagers would definitely have some experience with teen angst. At least enough to fill the page. So, I gave them instructions, and they were off to the races. Some of them were drawing a blank on what to write. Others were writing and erasing lines, which is something that happens to all writers. Some picked it right up and wrote their comic book page with the quickness, which was pretty impressive.
After completing their pages, Nicole, selected two of them to come read their pages with me. Both girls had their classmates cracking up. After they finished, their classmates commented about how they “ate” or “ate down” with their pages. Nicole had copies of my Squad Goals comic books for them to take home, and I had Shero Chapstick for all. They were excited by the goodies, but that Shero Comics Chapstick was a hit with everyone, including their teachers!
I think I helped make it a memorable experience for them. At the very least, I think my presentation took their minds off things. A few hours before I arrived, the school went into lockdown. No one knew exactly what happened, but the fact that these kids had to be locked in their classrooms because of a possible “situation” had to be harrowing for them.
Hopefully, today’s memories for that group of girls are more about laughing at the shenanigans in Squad Goals rather than that hour they were on lockdown and in fear. Something that has sadly become the norm in this country.