Antonio Alexander Romero
SPX Table D5
$5.00
Published by Artichoke Presents
All Ages
Category: Diary, Fantasy, and Other
Carlo Ribera writes poems as a way to process and understand his life experiences, as well as those of the people around him. His first collection, Utopian Musings, designed and illustrated by his daughter Swapna, explores the challenges his family faces through three generations. When his grandson Guillermo is five, the boy’s biological father reenters his life like a hurricane. At Guillermo’s request, Swapna transforms the twelve poems Carlo writes about this experience into a series of comics. The graphic novel Howling Winds offers three perspectives: a grandfather who supports, a mother who protects, and a boy who tries to understand who he is and who he might become. Two of these illustrated poems, Bad Men and Daddy’s Words, ask how do we carry the weight of the harm done to us without letting it shape who we are?