Engaging and Inspiring Readers through Creative Storytelling
It’s National Week of Making, and at The Possible Zone, our team boasts dozens of innovative, creative makers who inspire through their artistry and ingenuity. LJ Baptiste, TPZ educator/advisor, is a cartoonist who also works as part of the team that makes up Comics in Color, a Boston-based comic collective and now annual festival centered on stories by and about people of color. He reflects on the value of this medium in recognition of National Week of Making.
by LJ Baptiste, Educator/Advisor II —
One huge innovation in the world of art over the past couple decades has been through the graphic novel boom and the impact that has had on arts education, young people’s imaginations, and the way folks of all ages engage with literature as a whole.
My name is LJ-Baptiste and I’m a cartoonist and art educator from Boston. One of the things that has always captivated me from a young age was storytelling, and the various media with which it can effectively be conveyed and communicated. Whether it was via a book with or without pictures, a comic, or an animated film or show, I internalized the different methods that existed to make a story that can reach others come to life.
However, through all these different approaches, comics managed to stand out in a special way to me that has continued to this day. This is due in no small part to the ways that comics as a medium engages readers of all ages with dynamic, expressive imagery fused with narrative substance to create an experience like no other. One thing I came to learn and realize was that comics carry with them a more deeply personal and unique weight to them due to how they can be crafted from beginning to end by one person in a fairly practical way.
For animated productions for the large or small screen, there is a large collaborative effort that must be taken on in order to create the finished product. Consequently, this leads to a product that is no singular person’s voice or vision due to the influence and contributions from the collective. Meanwhile for graphic novels and comics, especially via the internet and the increasing rise of webcomics through apps and social media, there are plenty of comics both long- and short-form that are written, penciled, inked, and colored by one person, fully capturing that individual maker’s vision and worldview through their art directly to the consumer.
Over the last few decades bestselling graphic novels such as Persepolis or Maus, to name a couple, have played a huge role in changing the perception of this medium in America to one that is gradually developing a strong understanding and appreciation of the depth of personal stories of cultural identity covered in this format. The other part of this that hasn’t been lost on me as an educator that’s worked both within and outside the traditional classroom setting is how valuable it has been to capitalize off this accessibility of the medium for young people to utilize as an effective gateway for literary engagement of more complex topics.
According to a 2022 national survey published by the American Library Association (ALA),
today’s Gen Z crowd is not only very much readers, but, along with Millenials, reading at a higher rate compared to previous generations. Even self-identified non-readers are finding themselves drawn to libraries as well. This is a major part of why the library in the TPZ student lounge, curated by educators Sami Ginzberg and Sabrina Tirachen is so pivotal and significant: it gets to serve as a space that can effectively engage the young people in this space comfortably with a wide range of reading material of both prose and graphic novel books covering various subject matter. Readers and non-readers alike will be in the lounge and, much like today’s libraries containing Teen Centers that provide a lot of resources such as games and events, this safe space in the TPZ student lounge is given more value as a space to also offer intellectual stimulation in the form of reading.
So as someone who loves and creates comics, while also keeping in mind the vast storytelling potential it carries that has continued to be utilized in various ways by writers worldwide, it seems to me that families and educators should lean into the creative infusion of words and pictures to engage young readers’ sense of intellectual curiosity. This can also potentially carry with it the effect of inspiring more young people to pursue writing and/or drawing their own personal stories for themselves as well. Let’s support young makers creating a new path of their own accord that can engage with and inspire other readers.