Graphic depictions of the true-life stories of radical 1960s student activists will be on display at Brown University as the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization presents The SDS Comic Show exhibition from Friday, April 13, through Friday, June 1, 2007. Author Harvey Pekar will deliver a keynote lecture preceding the opening reception. All events are free and open to the public.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An exhibition exploring the history of Students for a Democratic Society, as well as the art and process of comic book creation, will be on display at the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University from Friday, April 13, through Friday, June 1, 2007. The exhibition, curated by Brown students under the auspices of the Public Humanities Program, is composed of pages and panels from the forthcoming Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History (Hill and Wang), scripted by Harvey Pekar and edited by Paul Buhle, senior lecturer in American civilization and history at Brown.

Pekar will deliver a keynote address, introduced by comics scholar Kent Worcester, on Friday, April 13, at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001. A reception and the exhibit opening will follow immediately at the John Nicholas Brown Center, 357 Benefit St. Pekar, Buhle and several artists of Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History will speak at the reception.

“The SDS Comic Show gives an overview history of the influential, but short-lived SDS and illustrates the local, personal stories of young people changing their own lives as they opposed war, racism, and sexism within the campus movements,” said Buhle.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of workshops and discussions on comic art will be held Wednesday, April 11, through Saturday, April 14, 2007. On Wednesday, a panel discussion titled “War, Activism, and Japanese American Artists,” will be held at 4 p.m. in List Art Center, Room 110. Panelists include Valerie Matsumoto (UCLA), Elena Tajima Creef (Wellesley College), Greg Robinson (University of Quebec), and Naoko Shibusawa (Brown).

Saturday’s events feature a panel discussion on Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History, which is the first in a series of nonfiction collaborations between Pekar and Buhle. In addition to Pekar and Buhle, book artists Summer McClinton, James Cennamo, and Nick Thorkelson will participate in the panel beginning at 10 a.m. Thorkelson, a former Boston Globe editorial cartoonist, and Worcester will present a talk about the history of comics in the United States at 12:30 p.m. Both events will be held in Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106.

The exhibition and events are sponsored by the Creative Arts Council, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Department of American Civilization, and the John Nicholas Brown Center Public Humanities Program.

The John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization is located at 357 Benefit St., Providence. The exhibit is open for viewing Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will stay open until 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 14, 2007.

For information, call (401) 863-1177 or e-mail [email protected].

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.

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