Something (rather than nothing)

Episode 12 - Vicko Alvarez Vega

I am so excited about this episode. Can't hold it back!

This week on 'Something (rather than nothing)' 

VICKO ALVAREZ VEGA - in her words -

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I never planned on being a comic artist. I never planned on being a teacher. I never planned on being an organizer or an activist. But I am so happy that I have done all that and more.

I’m a native Tejana that has called Chicago home for 12 years and the creator and illustrator of the ScholaR Comics web and zine series. The comic follows the lives of ScholaR, Rosita, and Masir as they wrap their heads around their own tough realities. ScholaR has a few anger issues, Rosita is learning what it means to be undocumented, and Masir is coming into his own as a mixed race boy who doesn’t feel very “boy-ish”. Altogether, they’re a reflection of my friends growing up, the youth I’ve had the privilege of teaching, and the childhood stories that we all carry with us as adults.

My latest comic zine, "Rosita Gets Scared", recounts Rosita coming to terms with her fear of deportation. The comic also serves as an activity book to be utilized in classrooms and with youth groups as a tool to encourage culturally relevant social and emotional learning. Weeks into its release, the comic was covered by Telemundo, Newsy, and Radio Vocalo, and has been ordered by activists, educators, and parents across the country. I’m very excited to have found community in people of color comic cons and I’m very happy about the growing opportunity to connect with like minded educators.

My workshops and discussions cover a variety of topics including

• Comics / Art as Activism

• Becoming and Independent Woman/Latinx Artist

• Immigrant and people of color portrayals in comics + literature

• Do It Yourself (DIY) zine making and publishing

• Career days and art workshops for middle school and high schoolers

• Drawing and Writing as therapeutic practice

For questions email Vicko directly at alvarez.vicko@gmail.com

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Episode 11- Veronica Casson

Another great listen this week with Artist VERONICA CASSON!

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"I'm Veronica, an illustrator and queer mom, living the dream with my family in Portland, Oregon.

After being born on the east coast and spending many years in New York City, San Francisco and Mexico, I have recently moved to the Pacific Northwest.

I am an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and comic artist. My webcomic, Claviger, was nominated for and Ignatz Award at the Small Press Expo.

Currently I am working on the remastered version of Claviger as well as a new comic, Grind Like a Girl, which shares my experiences in the world as a transgendered woman.

Ways you can support my art: buy a print, Patron on Patreon, or hire me for your next project. Cheers!"

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Episode 10 - Zora von Pavonine

Zora Von Pavonine was born on a full moon and raised on 20 acres.

 

Surrounded by animals, held most dear was the peacock family that allowed her to follow them around, telling stories, inventing all kinds of life. Momma Pavonine saw the creative spirit encapsulated in her precocious little Scorpio and encouraged music, dancing, painting and writing across the early years. Zora spent her teenage chapter foreshadowing her eventual participation in burlesque with another solo activity crafted beautifully from the mind and body, performing as a decorated cross country and track athlete, breaking records and holding others to this day.  Her deep appreciation for this output, mental tenacity, just the self and the body, stuck with her long after she left the track and immersed herself fully in hip hop dance.  She found grounding and heaven in hip hop and had been teaching the format for years when she found burlesque and she knew: she knew she had mined the gem, a dynamite composition of effort, passion, expression and self.

 

A published poet, holder of a handful of intellectual property patents and a few degrees in the creative arts, Zora needles on towards creating smart, impassioned acts wrapped in costumes that speak to her tremendous love of fashion and design, reflective of her hip hop roots and the unmistakable dedication of a distance runner… It has been said that her sparkle can be seen from outer space; it has been rumored that one night in Zora’s audience will have you discovering confetti in all your places for a month on… with pasties so small, even the most veteran of show-goers blush, they come to see the tease and leave with an eyeful of feathers… she is the Queen With The Peacock Tattoo.

Episode 9 - Joey Bauer

Great chat this episode with Joey Bauer!

JOEY BAUER is a musician under the alias Theo B. Veeus (can be found on Bandcamp). His albums are great journeys. I highly, highly recommend you travel these roads.

Bauer also manages the great ***Darkside Cinema*** in Corvallis, Oregon. Listen in to hear about the intertwining of sound and image. This discussion really got me thinking about language and how we, as humans, speak and hear.

Bauer is married and has two youngsters.

The importance of film and music in his life really comes through as we discuss the psychological aspects of creating art as well as whether something can come from nothing.

Thanks for supporting "Something (rather than nothing)"!!!

 

Episode 8 - Ethan Slayton

A native Vermonter, Ethan attended the Maine College of Art and graduated from the Joe Kubert School of Illustration and Design in '98.

Ethan has self-published his own comics since Year 2000,  taught a youth program for intro to comics at a day camp for Burlington City Arts for five years, has had work published in roughly a dozen role-playing game books for AEG and many more for 3rd party publishers, Ethan has had exceedingly minor success involving the Comic Book industry (inked a 5 page back up in B.Clay Moore's Battle Hymn for Image Comics back in 2000).

Ethan moved to Portland, Oregon in 2008 where he met and volunteered with several the local comic scene enthusiasts that were involved in making Stumptown Comics Fest. In 2015, Ethan illustrated and inked the first issue of the comic Dark Anna & The Pirates of Kadath - a comic which is created and written by local Portland writer, Aaron Duran. 

Ethan continues to write & draw his own comics for an upcoming anthology called The October Ages as well as working freelance doing spot illustrations for role-playing games. 

Ethan currently resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two studio cats. 

Episode 7 - Sean Wynn

Don't miss this episode!

This week we talk Hip-Hop, Art, Comics, Chicago, Rap history, women in geek culture, action figures, sci-fi, fantasy, Oddisee, Little Brother, Rapsody with . . .

SEAN WYNN A.K.A. Baddwolfe A.K.A. CeriusBlaq A.K.A. Hank McCoy Beast MC

Comic enthusiast, Hip Hop Junkie, Marketing Nerd, Activist.

General in the Preytorians Army.

Owner of Strange Solutions Marketing & Consulting.

A Chicago Native that has been residing in Portland for the last 10 years making a name for himself the professional nerd industries.

Listen to the sound of the Preytorians here:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5AgeUs2Ltq3QIglSKFBa1u?si=o2oMU-AuSv-LAW8-XAqSrg 

Episode 6 - Joanna C. Valente

Joanna C. Valente is a ghost who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Joanna is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015)  Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016), Sexting Ghosts (Unknown Press, 2018), and No(body) (Madhouse Press, 2019). They are the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing By Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017), and received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and an editor for Civil Coping Mechanisms.

Joanna has been featured in Brooklyn Magazine, Them, Prelude, BUST, Columbia Journal, Electric Literature, Joyland, Tarpaulin Sky, The Feminist Wire, Spork Press, Ravishly, The Rumpus, VICE, The Brooklyn Rail, VIDA, The Huffington Post, among others. Joanna also currently teaches courses at Brooklyn Poets. 

In addition, Joanna has also spoken or given lectures for/at SUNY Purchase College, Sarah Lawrence College, the National Eating Disorder Association, AWP, Brooklyn Book Festival, Shout Your Abortion, Ravishly, Luna Luna Magazine, Monstering Magazine, Winter Tangerine, and more.

Episode 5 - Claire Papoulis

CLAIRE PAPOULIS has always been interested in the path of holistic healing, forging a personal mission from a very young age to bring wellness and balance to her own life. After discovering the Amma Therapy program at The Wellspring School for Healing Arts, these values began to blossom as a career path. As a therapist, she strives to create a comfortable space in which clients can explore and enhance this path for themselves through education, healing, and relaxation. She continued her training in herbal medicine in the Professional Herbalist program through the East West School for Planetary Herbology. It is her priority to treat each client through a holistic model, addressing all elements of mind and body in unity.

Alongside her career, Claire has always valued the arts, striving to maintain creativity as a presence in her life. Growing up with her father the NYC-based composer Jim Papoulis, she was exposed to music from day one and developed an awe with creative figures and the creative process. Although she has experimented with different mediums, her recent life has brought her back into mentorship under sculptor Greg Steinsieck with whom she is exploring creative expression through visual art. She holds a strong belief in the important interaction that occurs through stimulating different parts of the brain by engaging in a variety of both intellectual and creative mediums.

Episode 4 - Bunkong Tuon

Check out the newest episode with poet Bunkong Tuon. We delve into (or at least mention) - Bukowski, The State of Nirvana, Cambodian Genocide and Diaspora, War, Censorship, What to do about Morrissey, The State of Poetry, Something, Nothing, Emily Dickinson, Amherst, Family.

Bunkong Tuon is a Cambodian-American writer, critic, professor, and, most importantly, father. He is the author of Gruel (NYQ Books, 2015), And So I Was Blessed (NYQ Books, 2017), and Dead Tongue (with Joanna C. Valente, from Yes Poetry), as well as a contributor to Cultural Weekly.

Nominated for the Pushcart numerous times, his poetry recently won the 2019 Nasiona Nonfiction Poetry Prize. He has completed a book of poems about raising his daughter in contemporary America. He is an associate professor of English and Asian Studies at Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Episode 3 - Nicole J. Georges

I have been lucky to have so many wonderful artists join me in these early episodes, including Nicole J. Georges - a deeply funny and wise soul. 

Here is more about Nicole - 

Nicole J. Georges is a writer, illustrator, podcaster & professor from Portland, OR.

Her Lambda Award winning graphic memoir, Calling Dr. Laura, was called “engrossing, lovable, smart and ultimately poignant” by Rachel Maddow, and “disarming and haunting, hip and sweet, all at once” by Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home. 'Allô, dr Laura?' was an Official Selection at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Nicole’s latest book, Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home, is the recipient of 2 Oregon Book Awards, and a Lambda nomination for best Graphic Novel. It received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and the Library Journal, and was voted a 2018 “Great Graphic Novel for Teens” by ALA. “Nicole Georges makes my favorite art about love and vulnerability”. -Jill Soloway

Nicole won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Arts Education in 2012. She was the 2013 Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, the 2015/16 Donaldson Writer in Residence at the College of William and Mary, and currently teaches at California College for the Art’s MFA in Comics Program.

She has been publishing her own zines and comics for 20 years, and has toured the country extensively, including two appearances on Michelle Tea’s Sister Spit tour.

Nicole currently splits her time between Portland and Los Angeles with her chomeranian best friend, Ponyo Georges. She is the host of the podcast, Sagittarian Matters.

www.nicolejgeorges.com