The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is going online this week for its ninth annual Black Comic Book Festival. The 2021 edition of the festival runs virtually from Jan. 13 to Jan. 16.
The event celebrates comics featuring Black characters and those created by Black artists, writers, independent publishers and animators, bringing them together with blerds and fans. Also, students from the Schomburg Center's Junior Scholars Program will honor late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who taught theater acting at Schomburg from 2002 to 2009.
The cosplay showcase will be virtual as well, with 15-second videos of cosplayers in their best comic, superhero or Afrofuturist costumes.
The sessions include workshops on comics writing, animation, new and emerging comics creators, "Black Girl Genius," "#Edcomix: Teaching Hard History Through Comics" and one on social commentary including cartoonist Keith Knight, creator of the comedy Woke on Hulu.
The Schomburg Center is a division of the New York Public Library, focused on "research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences." The Schomburg Center's first Black Comic Book Festival was in 2013, established by Jerry Craft, author of Mama's Boyz and The Offenders; Jonathan Gayles, a professor at the University of Georgia; educator Deidre Hollman; and John Jennings, a professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Source: New York Public Library/Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival