COMICS POSTER ART READINGS! 

The San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Poster Series commissions artists to create a new body of work with specific SF themes. That work is created as posters in the bus kiosks lining Market Street, SF’s main thoroughfare. 

In 2022 (and 2023), SFAC designated the poster project to be solely comics! And this was on top of the success of two earlier comics poster series from 2019 and 2020, making for a banner moment for comics art in the city’s public sphere. 

This calls for a celebration! The California College of the Arts MFA in Comics program is proud to host a dynamic comics-reading event from these posters (after all, four MFAC faculty and alumni were involved in creating the art and judging the projects). After the readings, stay for a meet-and-greet with the artists, some of whom will be selling and signing books. 

Please join us for an afternoon of poster art, comics storytelling, and San Francisco pride!

Featuring:

Kate Rhoades, reading from the poster series Market Street Mysteries Solved!

Justin Hall, reading from the poster series Marching Toward Pride

Fred Noland, reading from the poster series San Francisco Black History

Gaia Wxyz, reading from the poster series The Tale of Daisy and Gaia

AC Esguerra, reading from the poster series San Francisco: The City of Poets

Vida Kuang, reading from the poster series Chinatown: Love, Struggle, and Resistance (with artist Kayan Cheung-Miaw)

Hosted by: Ajuan Mance (MFAC faculty) and Craig Corpora (SFAC Art on Market Street coordinator)

When: Saturday November 12th 3-5pm

Where: CCA Graduate Writing Center – 195 DeHaro Street

What: Comics readings, meeting and greet with the artists, signing books

Why: Because comics are awesome! 

BIOS

A.C. Esguerra

Website: blueludebar.com/

Bio: A.C. Esguerra is an award-winning queer cartoonist whose intricate storytelling blends history and fantasy in traditional ink. Their debut graphic novel was Eighty Days, a GLAAD Award nominee and one of YALSA’s 2022 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Most recently, they illustrated an Amelia Earhart graphic novel with Melanie Gillman.

Justin Hall

Website: justinhallawesomecomics.com

Bio: Justin Hall is Chair of the CCA MFA in Comics and the creator of True Travel Tales, Hard to Swallow, and Theater of Terror, as well as stories in the Best American Comics, Best Erotic Comics, and SF Weekly. He created the Lambda-Award-winning and Eisner-nominated collection No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics and was Producer on the award-winning documentary of the same name. 

Kate Rhoades

Website: krhoades.com

Bio: Kate Rhoades lives and works in Oakland, California. Her work has been presented in the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Santa Fe International New Media Festival. Rhoades has exhibited at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, Southern Exposure in San Francisco, and various venues, publications, hotel rooms and alleyways across the globe. Since 2014 she has co-hosted the Bay Area's number one arts and culture podcast, Congratulations Pine Tree. 

Kayan Cheung-Miaw  

Website: www.KayanComics.com

Bio: Kayan Cheung-Miaw (she/they) is a mama, artist, organizer, and educator based in North Carolina. Originally from Hong Kong, raised in New York’s Chinatown, Kayan's art aims to humanize those who have been dehumanized. As an organizer in S.F., Kayan’s leadership in the Yank Sing restaurant workers’ campaign resulted in a historic $4 million settlement for 280 workers.

Vida Kuang  

Instagram: @vida.kuang

Bio: Vida Kuang is an artist raised by a Toisan matriarch and the streets of Chinatown. As a visual storyteller, her work centers on healing as experienced by Asian womxn, intergenerational joy, and experiences of poor/working class peoples. Her art practice is inspired by movements led by women of color for racial, gender, and economic justice. Vida’s work addresses the complexities and intersections of survival, healing, and memory.

Gaia WXYZ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaiaw.xyz/

Bio: Gaia WXYZ (pronounced “wise”) is a multimedia artist and cartoonist living in Oakland, CA.  They create autobiographical comics about being Black and Queer.  In 2020 they graduated from CCA’s MFA in Comics program. One year later they taught the first-ever comic art class at UC Berkeley, and currently teach at CCA as well.

Fred Noland

Website: http://frednoland.com/

Bio: Noland’s comics and illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, LA Weekly, Nickelodeon Jr., and East Bay Express, among others. Noland’s work ranges from the esoteric to historical biographies, with his current projects focusing on Black History. These include a James Baldwin children’s book, Respect Black Women, and the San Francisco Black History poster series. His graphic novel biography about turn-of-the-century champion cyclist Major Taylor is scheduled for release from Drawn & Quarterly in 2023.