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Title
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Comic Book Your Heritage!
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Date
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19 March 2025
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Description
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The workshop “Comic Book Your Heritage!” invited attendees to explore and celebrate their cultural heritage through the art of comic storytelling. Part one of the workshop included a discussion about the comics, which appear in the Senate House Library exhibition - In the Grip of Change: The Caribbean and its British Diaspora - and their broader connection to the historical use of comics in the Caribbean. This discussion was led by comic writer, Colleen Douglas, whose own work has been influenced by a long tradition of comics as a form of communication, educational, and cultural transmission in Guyana. In part two, attendees learned how to transform their heritage stories into a visually captivating collaborative comic under the guidance of illustrator, Salina Jane. As part of this exercise, they were invited to bring along one or two small objects that they felt connect them to their heritage to inspire their comic book illustration.
Colleen Douglas is a Guyana-born, British comic book writer and creator. She is Curation Editor on ‘Shook! Vol 2 Songs of the Dark Sirens’, the sequel to the ground-breaking ‘Shook! A Black Horror Anthology’ released by Penguin Random House in Jan 2024. She is the first Black Women to be published by Caliber Comics in its 35-year history. A prolific writer, her current work ‘SILK COTTON’ (The Caribbean Supernaturals Mythology) for Leviathan Labs was an immediate success selling out when first released in 2022. It was later released in English by Rosarium Publishing in July 2024 and can be found in bookshops everywhere. She holds a PhD in Ancient Monetary Systems, was Editor in Chief for Amigo Comics and has a special love for all things supernatural, cosmic, esoteric, and weird. ‘Shook! Vol 2 Songs of the Dark Sirens’ will be released on 28th October 2025 from Dark Horse via Penguin Random House.
Salina Jane is a British artist, illustrator and printmaker of Indo-Guyanese descent making work about the experience of her family’s journey from India through indentured labour to Guyana coming to the UK in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. This has included working in close partnership on the curation of ‘Indo + Caribbean: The Creation of a Culture’ (May-Nov 2023) for the Museum of London Docklands. She is a visual storyteller exploring themes of identity, culture, heritage, migration, and the double diaspora experience through drawing and in her teaching. She works from her studio in Croydon and teaches across the UK and online.
