Graphic Novelist James Spooner, Bobby Hackney Jr. at Non-Fiction Comics Fest

On October 15, Big Heavy World had the pleasure and honor of introducing filmmaker and graphic novelist James Spooner and local musician Bobby Hackney, Jr. for their conversation at Burlington’s Non-Fiction Comics Festival. The conversation at the Fletcher Free Library explored their individual and often similar experiences of being black youth within a white punk subculture. Spooner talked about the real life that informed his new graphic novel The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. The book is a graphic memoir of growing up biracial in Apple Valley, California, a dusty desert town home to both a thriving punk scene and rampant white supremacy. The book explores his reckoning with these various societal forces, and his journey of finding identity and belonging within the world of Punk. Learn more about his film Afro-punk and The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. at https://www.spoonersnofun.com.