I’ve used the easily-digested art-form of cartooning to examine and deconstruct our national history and enlighten the power and beauty of our diverse cultural identities as a way to support social change. By using simple lines, bright colors, humanistic stories, and popular genres, I shine light on our difficult histories and add my own unique voice to our national discourse. My comic book series, ‘Tales of the Closet’, was one of the first interventions for LGBTI youth during the early years of the AIDS epidemic; a time of much misunderstanding and miscommunication. My pioneering work in independent and mainstream comics helped install real diversity of color, gender and orientation into a historically oppressive industry. Now, my life’s work as an independent creator and teaching artist has been greatly supported by several grants, including several from the Bronx Council On The Arts, and the Creative Capital grant. My teaching work has allowed me to share my skill-sets within my own communities in the hopes of enabling the creation of our own sorely needed stories. I still create independent comics based on the histories of POC/Queer folk in America via fantastical yet common superhero tropes. My current focus on the histories of the indigenous folk before and after the Eradication support my belief that art can be used to acknowledge, validate and heal our shared historical traumas. My life has always been about social change, and I believe that a culture changes quickly and deeply via its popular culture and shared mythology.
