Outside the Lines: LGBTQ Coming-of-Age Comics

Life outside the lines.

FEATURING:

• Tahneer Oksman, author of How Come Boys Get to Keep their Noses?


• L. Nichols, author of Flocks


• Beldan Sezen, author of Snapshots of a Girl


• Melanie Gillman, author of As the Crow Flies

From Fun Home to Flocks, a new wave of comics harness the form to tell stories about youth, sexuality, and gender identity. A panel of artists and creators discuss the medium’s power to explore coming of age as an LGBTQ youth.

Tahneer Oksman moderates a conversation with L. Nichols, Beldan Sezen, and Melanie Gillman about the challenges and opportunities that come with using the comic book format to tell their stories. How do comics and graphic novels contribute to visual representation of LGBTQ+ youth? How do the artists and writers determine their overall themes? How is creating a graphic memoir different from a written memoir? The panelists will discuss these and other questions, followed by Q&A.

Mid-Sentence presents a series of conversations with groundbreaking literary voices. Indie authors and cult favorites explore the intersections between literature and lived experience.

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.