Hey yall, this coming Saturday I’ll be moderating a panel about community and i’ll be a speaker on another panel about food and culture. Juiced! If you’re going to the Bay Area Book Fest come see me.
1-Community Love
Saturday, May 4 | 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM I’m moderating this panel featuring Roxanne Chester, DeMareon Gipson, and Booki Vivat
2-Food and Culture
Saturday, May 4 | 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM featuring Ying Chang Compestine, Meera Sriram, and Me!!
If you’re curious to see the schedule of my panels and all the others that will be happening for the 10th annual Bay Area Book Festival please go to this link HERE.
I’m blessed that I get to speak to youth tomorrow at @rocktheschoolbells about one of my favorite things!!! Art Books and Education, specifically I’m going to converse with them about doorways to creative fields and what part inspiration can play in liberation.
If you’ve got kids going to the 17th annual “Rock The School Bells” a dope conference for youth about hip hop history, skills, workshops, performance, and knowledge send em my way 🙏🏾 check out my bro OG @dodatamen who will be rocking as well!! @skyline_college in #SanBruno California.
For more information about location, time, and all the other speakers please go to RockThe School Bells
First off, I need to give major props and respect to Dr Theresa Rojas who not only invited me to come speak to teachers, administrators, and students at MODESTO JUNIOR COLLEGE but is one of the nicest most bad ass Chicana’s I know. She organizes the annual Latinx Comix & Arts Festival in Modesto at MJC. If you’re in the Bay, LA, Northern Cali, or central California go check this event out. Here’s a link
Ok, I got up super early and made the trek from Oakland to Modesto which if you’re not from here takes about 2 hours. It was a super rainy weekend but I was prepared for it and we need as much rain as we can get.
When I arrived English professor Dan Schmidt received me and took me around. Dan was super nice and gave me the leg of the town, took me to lunch with other staff members, and guided me around since I made multiple presentations. This poster was up everywhere around the campus. Fresh Juice came out in the summer so it was nice to let folks know about that early.
Here’s a photo I took with one of the students. I wish I had take a photo of the first presentation with allllll of the students, but it was in a room full of young and older college students so I got talk to them about:
A career in the arts
Children’s Book Illustration and writing
Diversity in literature
Making a living as an artist
Social Justice art
I cannot remember everyone’s name for the life of me but it was so nice to sit and have lunch with staff from the school. These adults care a lot about their students and their community!
After a dinner I was brought back to MJC where I was then introduced to a room full of professors, teachers, students, and community members.
So here I gave a presentation about :
Children’s Book Publishing
Creative writing and illustration process
My journey in the arts and kid lit
Ethnic Studies, Social Justice, Mural art
My first bilingual book Furqan’s First Flat Top/ El Primer Corte de Mesita de Furqan
I talked a bit about visiting young children to read to them
And I then answered questions from the audience
After the questions, I tabled a bit selling some of my prints, books, and showing them some examples of the type of stuff I bring with me to do workshops for teens such as zines and art books. Dr Rojas helped me handle the merch table because hella folks actually supported, I was not expecting that so I didn’t bring allll my stuff.
And here’s a photo of Dr Theresa Rojas who made it possible for me to visit the college and speak to so many about what I do and see out there. She’s super awesome, and here’s a few words she had to say….
“We have enjoyed having Robert join us at Modesto Junior College no fewer than THREE times so far—for tabling at the Latinx Comic Arts Festival, to speak to a children’s literature course, and as our Visiting Author for the year. That speaks volumes about the impact of his work and our fondness for the way he connects to his audience.”
~Dr. Theresa Rojas Professor of Ethnic Studies and English Director of the Latinx Comic Arts Festival Modesto Junior College
That’s it fam, I really loved speaking to future teachers, early childhood educators, and students. Over the years I’ve read to thousands of young people and increasingly I’m getting the chance to talk to colleges. Here is a link to check out MJC and definitely check out their annual Latinx Comics & Arts Festival.
Yup, I will be at the famed “Cartoon Art Museum” this Sunday. If you’re around the city please come say hello. I’ll be there April 2nd from 1-3pm talking about my work and my new art book “Art of Rob”. This is a cool museum where you can see original art from folks who’ve worked in illustration, animation, cartooning, and pop culture. I’ve been there before and its a really cool place to check out or hang!
Sup with it fam! On March 29th of this year I will be doing a presentation for college students and faculty at Modesto Jr College! I’m going to be talking about my career, art, kids books, publishing, and literacy! I’ve visited Modesto and the jr college three times in the past. First for the Latino Comics Expo founded by Ricardo Padilla and Javier Hernandez-the first ever comics con dedicated to Latino Comics writers and illustrators. Second, I visited the main branch of the Modesto Public Library to read to families, children, and caregivers for their story time. Third, I visited for the “Latinx Comics and Arts Fest” founded by Dr. Theresa Rojas , a professor from MJC.
All of these were really great events or experiences filled with families, community, incredible creators, art, and lots of books and comics. If you’re a student at the college or know someone who is please invite them to attend.
If you’re looking for something to do with the entire family, check out the Latinx Comics and Arts Fest happening on March 17-18th.
Dig this? Check out this interview I did with my bro Farbeon on Feel Good Radio. Also, this is a recent school visit for Prospect Sierra in Berkeley California.
This past week myself, Tyrah Majors, Leonard Williams, and Parable Tacoma had a panel discussion about our work, diversity and books, and we read a few exerpts from our stories. You can visit Tacoma Public Library online here. BIG shout out to Mejin Turner, Kelsey King, and Kim Mose who are the librarians who invited us to speak!! I met these folks last summer at the Seattle Urban Book Expo.
Here’s the original flyer:
Dig this? Here’s a video from a literacy presentation I did with Sacramento’s Sol Collective
Yo, this coming Black History Month I will be speaking at the “African American Read In” for the Pierce County public library in Tacoma Washington. You can join virtually from anywhere in the world. I will be speaking with two Washington based authors and the owners of the shop “Parable Tacoma”. I met some of the librarians organizing this event at the Seattle Urban Book Expo and I’m juiced to be a part of this.
Yo, had a chance to speak and read to a bunch of families of the Prospect Sierra School in Berkeley California at Pegasus Books in support of a fundraiser for the school. This was only the second time I’ve presented about my work in relation to my art book “Art of Rob” and it was well received. Lots of young ones copped the book and I got to do some doodles in their books.
Some of the topics we discussed in this presentation were:
The power of representation in kid lit and media
Literacy and the path to reading for fun
My art, career timeline, family, and art inspiration
Diverse Books, self publishing, and the publishing world
Social justice movements, activism, and art
Pegasus books is an old bookstore based in Berkeley and Oakland. The Solano store has a huge selection of diverse kids books and I’m always like a kid in a candy store when I’m there. Prospect Sierra is an independent or private school in El Cerrito California. I have been doing school visits as a storyteller since 2012 and I worked as an arts teacher from 2002-2010. I don’t miss being a teacher, but I do love talking to young people!
Dig this? I’ve been presenting to, reading to, and speaking with young people in presentations like these for more than a decade. Check out some photos from a public school reading at Bella Vista in Oakland, or Woodland Elementary in Oakland.
Also, here’s is a link to an interview I did for Rightnowish on KQED.
Yooo, I’m a guest on “Rightnowish” a podcast/ radio show with Pendarvis Harshaw on KQED!! Been listening since it came out in 2019 and have loved listening to interviews with mc/writer Rocky Rivera, MC/Historian Dregs One, Futbolista/Medicine woman Dania Cabello, Muralist Timothy B, Artist/Curator Ashara Ekundayo, Designer/publisher Mike Nicholls, Cartoonist Breena Nuñez, muralist Josue Rojas and his Mama, and series pieces like this summer’s “Searching for a Kiki” with Corey Antonio Rose who lovingly shares Queer Black history.
Rightnowish seeks out a broad array of folks in music, film, activism, organizing, performing and visual arts. He gets in depth with each guest and topic in a very short segment that is so sincere, clear, and inspiring. Not since “Home Turf” , “Distortion to Static”, or “Hard Knock Radio” have I heard such a wealth of folks who are talented but underrated by mainstream media be highlighted. That’s actually how I found Pen, through his doc on Mike “Dream” Francisco.
But, what’s even better is that the team of host/journalist Pendarvis Harshaw with producer Marisol Medina Cadena and editor Jessica Placzeck make the process and final product PROFESSIONAL. When you listen you know who the episode is about. And you can hear it clear and concisely. Not all podcasts do that! And when I think about how they condensed our hour long convo to this short but meaningful piece; I’m awed. Subscribe to this show, share it, donate to KQED, and follow the team!
Two weeks ago I read at a local Oakland school called Bella Vista, and here are some photos from the reading which had over 100 kids, parents and teachers. Photo credit.
This was a tough one because the crowd was big so I had a mic and walked around with a student to show the kids the pages of the book in between reading. Since 2012 I’ve done 1-10 school, library, or event readings with my books every year. Sometimes by myself and sometimes with another author.
I’ve spoken to pre school, elementary, high school, and college students. If you’d like me to come speak to your students give me a holler.
Dig this? Check out this visit to Columbus Ohio where I tabled at SOL Con and read to a local school. LINK
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