Creative Narratives: Vietnamerica And Other Stories
- Organizer: A/P/A Institute at NYU
- Venue: A/P/A Institute at NYU, 7th Floor Gallery
- Address:
41-51 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003 United States
Cartoonist GB Tran will talk about his graphic memoir in which an inspired artist/storyteller reveals the road that brought his family to where they are today: Vietnamerica. Born and raised in South Carolina as a son of immigrants, GB knew that his parents had fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. But even as they struggled to adapt to life in America, they preferred to forget the past and to focus on their children’s futures. It was only in his late twenties that Tran began to learn their extraordinary story. When his last surviving grandparents die within months of each other, GB visits Vietnam and begins to learn the tragic history of his family, and of the homeland they left behind. In telling his family’s story, Tran speaks on many levels from working through trauma and reinvention and also finding his own place and self in a narrative of diaspora.
An artist conversation follows featuring multi-Eisner nominated comic creators Christine Norrie (Hopeless Savages, Cheat, Breaking Up), Fred Chao (Johnny Hiro { Half Asian, All Hero }), and Jerry Ma (Epic Proportions, Secret Identities).
Books will be available for sale. Cash or check only.
Vietnamerica has been featured on ABC’s World News Now and selected as one of the best books of 2011 byLibrary Journal, Kirkus, and School Library Journal, and recently earned GB the Society of Illustrators gold medal for Sequential Art. He is a 2011 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program, funded with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
With the intent of raising the rate of bone marrow registration within the Asian American community and other ethnic minorities, NYU Team Janet will be hosting a bone marrow drive at this event as well as many others throughout NYU’s Asian Heritage Month. For information, please contact Ben Dumond at Ben.Dumond@nyu.edu.
Co-sponsored by NYFA’s Artists & Audiences Exchange, NYU Vietnamese Students Association, Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program at NYU