Unsung Heroes and Invisible People

Local indie comics superstars Joel Christian Gill and Raul Gonzalez appear, along with novelist Helen Elaine Lee, in a panel entitled “Unsung Heroes and Invisible People”  Wednesday, April 22, 2105 from 8 to 9:30 pm, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle Street, Cambridge.  Admission $10.  

When the market is saturated with celebrity tell-alls, how does one go about getting ink for individuals the world should know more about? Three authors discuss how their books shine a light on people whose lives are far from positions of influence or power, through words alone or words and pictures. Register by phone (617-547-678), online (course code: WRLF Sec. 03: 1),or pay at the door ($10).  8-930 pm.

Joel Christian Gill, Strange Fruit Volume 1: Uncelebrated Narratives of Black History (Fulcrum Publishing). Gill has an M.F.A. in painting from Boston University, a master’s in art history, and undergraduate degrees in fine/studio arts and commercial art. In this graphic novel, he combines his love of art with his desire to tell stories of African-Americans that history books have left behind. Gill is Associate Dean of Student Affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable. (https://joelchristiangill.wordpress.com/)

Helen Elaine Lee. Her first novel, The Serpent’s Gift, was published by Atheneum in 1994 and her second, Water Marked, by Scribner in 1999. She recently finished “Life Without,” a novel about the lives of ten people incarcerated in two neighboring U.S. prisons, and “The Hard Loss,” a novel about a DNA exoneree’s first week of freedom after 22 years of incarceration for a crime he did not commit. Stories from “Life Without” have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Callaloo, Hanging Loose, and Best African American Fiction 2009 (Bantam Books). She is Associate Professor of Fiction Writing in MIT’s Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies and a Writer in Residence with the Solstice Low-Residency M.F.A. program. A member of the Board of Directors of PEN New England, she serves on its Freedom to Write Committee, and teaches in its Prison Creative Writing Program, which she directs and helped establish. (www.helenelainelee.net)

Raul Gonzalez, Lowriders in Space (Chronicle Books). He is an award-winning artist, also known as children’s book illustrator, Raul III. An inspiring teacher, Raul has taught at both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute for Contemporary Arts in Boston. Gonzalez’ first book was illustrated with black, blue and red Bic pens, the materials he recalls using as a young boy growing up in El Paso, Texas. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States including Princeton University and Art Space in Raleigh, North Carolina. (http://www.raulthethird.com/)

Writers Life series advisors: Barbara Beckwith & Yleana Martinez. Moderator: Charles Coe.
For National Writers Union info: www.nwuboston.org, www.facebook.com/NWUBoston
A Write up of the event.