The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York is celebrating the 4th Annual Black Comic Book Festival on January 16th, and I couldn’t be more excited! The full day event is packed to the brim with workshops, panel discussions, exhibits, film-screenings, and more; it’s nearly impossible to have a chunk of time with nothing to do or see.
The founders of Black Comic Book Day, Deirdre Hollman, Director of the Schomburg Education and Junior Scholars program, Dr. Jonathan Gayles (“White Scripts and Black Supermen”), Jerry Craft (Mama’s Boyz) and John Ira Jennings (Black Kirby, Unveiling Visions) created the festival in the hopes that it would not only inspire other artists to explore the rich and dynamic world of black superheroes, but that it would open up a whole new world of role models for kids who don’t often see themselves represented in comics, science fiction and speculative literature.