Comic book and zine workshops to be held at Arab American National Museum in Dearborn

Comic book, graphic novel, and zine fans have even more reason to visit downtown east Dearborn with the announcement of two comic book-themed talks and interactive experiences. Each event takes place at the Arab American National Museum, where the exhibition Drawing in the Diaspora: Comic Art & Graphic Novels by Leila Abdelrazaq is currently on display.

The first event is the Design in Comics Talk with Aya Krisht, which takes place at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25. The event is free, though an online RSVP is required.

Aya Krisht is the media designer at the Arab American National Museum and a graphic designer and illustrator. She will be presenting how design conveys mood, meaning, and message in comic books and graphic novels.

"Hopefully attendees can come away from this talk with a deeper understanding of how design elements like style, color, composition and typography come together in comics to tell a story and be inspired to explore the endless possibilities through comics of their own," says Krisht.

The second event is the Comic and Zine-making Workshop with Leila Abdelrazaq, which takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 4. Like the first, the event is free, though an online RSVP is required.

Leila Abdelrazaq is the artist responsible for the current Drawing in the Diaspora exhibition at the museum. The artist will host a conversational walk through her exhibit. Following the tour, attendees will be invited to make their own comics and zines with Abdelrazaq providing prompts, guides, and tips.

"Creating zines has long been a method of subverting traditional or mainstream media sources," says Abdelrazaq. "This workshop will give young people the tools to create their own zines and self-published short comics, driving home the fact that you don’t need to wait for someone else to publish your work or validate your ideas--you can go ahead and do it yourself!"

Check out our profile of Dearborn-based Green Brain Comics to learn more about the Dearborn comic book community.

The Arab American National Museum is located at 13624 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn.

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