Artists, cosplay, panels, vendors, and more!
The Boston Comics in Color Festival is New England’s first comic arts festival focused on stories by and about people of color. This year’s event will be held on April 23 from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Crossing. The festival is a family friendly event for all ages. It will include event headliners, special guest speakers, panel discussions with working artists and writers, workshops, live art demos, and an artist alley, where comic creators can share and sell books, materials, and artwork.
The festival’s website describes how the idea for it came about:
“The Boston Comics in Color Festival is the culmination of a movement co founded by two Boston-based comic creators, Barrington Edwards and Cagen Luse. In 2013 they connected with one another over a mutual love of comics while in an art exhibition together. In 2015 they traveled to the Schomburg Library’s Black Comic Book Festival and were both blown away by the sight of hundreds of people of color enjoying and creating comics. It was a paradigm shift to even realize that places like this exist. On the ride back to home they both felt that Boston needs to have a space like this that not only celebrates stories by creators of color but is a space for Blerds to be themselves and connect with one another.”
Learn more about the event here.
Shira Laucharoen is a reporter based in Boston. She currently serves as the assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In the past she has written for Sampan newspaper, The Somerville Times, Scout Magazine, Boston Magazine, and WBUR.