{"id":13593,"date":"2020-06-25T10:52:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T14:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=13593"},"modified":"2020-06-25T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:03:55","slug":"episode-379-jonathan-w-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-379-jonathan-w-gray","title":{"rendered":"Episode 379 – Jonathan W Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 379:
\nJonathan W. Gray<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_379_-_Jonathan_W_Gray.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“Literature has a role to play at precisely this moment, because we have to dream and think big.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I nerd out with author, English professor, and hardcore comics reader Jonathan W. Gray<\/a>. We talk about how Blackness is represented in American comics (the subject of his next book), how Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing<\/a> changed his life, and how he was teaching comics when there weren’t a lot of college courses on comics. We get into the perils and perks of academia, what it’s like teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and protesting against police violence, the influence of Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner<\/a> & John Lewis’ March<\/a> on his work, the horrifying question of whether we’re actually in the best<\/em> timeline right now, and plenty more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read his first book, Civil Rights in the White Literary Imagination: Innocence by Association<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“Because police are in retreat, at least rhetorically, we’re finally having a conversation about their budget vs. the budget for social workers, for education, and housing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n