How does the use of conjure or rootwork in comic narratives reconfigure identity, morality, and power? This panel explores how, despite its contentious nature, this folk magic has been a fruitful source of critique of the interplay of power and identity and sheds light on the shadowed spaces that still mystify our nation. John Jennings (University of California, Riverside) explores this folk magic as a symbolic narrative device in Jook Joint, Bitter Root, House of Whispers, and Bone Parish that boldly challenges the status quo in comics. Kinitra Brooks (Michigan State University) examines Black women's rootworking traditions via Harrow County and "conjure feminism." Stanford Carpenter (BCAF, Pocket Con) shows how nonbinary trickster figures in Juke Joint call the alignment of might and right into question by moving away from morality and centering the consequences of the struggle to survive and overcome.
Saturday July 20, 2019 11:30am - 1:00pm PDT
Room 26AB
