Exploring the Jagged Edges of History: Graphic Novel Book Launch at New Haven Museum

Descripción

Join internationally renowned historian, filmmaker, playwright, and activist Dr. Marcus Rediker and award-winning artist David Lester for the launch of their new graphic novel, The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel.Offering a powerful visual experience, the book carries readers from the 1839 rebellion on the Amistad by 53 people from Sierra Leone, to the resulting trials that achieved an unexpected international victory for the abolitionist movement. The Black Schooner re-centers the West African rebels as the primary actors in their own freedom story while presenting their tale of liberation and social justice to new readers in a new format. Rediker and Lester will share insights and discuss the interpretation and behind-the-scenes decisions that guided the visual storytelling in this new medium.Signed copies of The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad by David Lester and Marcus Rediker, and edited by Paul Buhle, will be available for purchase.This program is organized by New Haven Museum, the Amistad Committee Inc., and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.New Haven Museum is a CT Freedom Trail Site. The Amistad story has united cities and towns across Connecticut around a shared history, which inspired the formation of the Connecticut Freedom Trail. This program is offered as a Connecticut Freedom Trail month activity.About Marcus RedikerRediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. He has written or edited 18 books, including“The Many-Headed Hydra” with Peter Linebaugh,“The Slave Ship,” “The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom,”The Fearless Benjamin Lay” and“Freedom Ship. ”His writings have won numerous awards and been published in twenty-two languages worldwide. He wrote the stage play,“The Return of Benjamin Lay,” with Naomi Wallace. He has also created four graphic novels with David Lester and Paul Buhle and a children’s book with Michelle Markel and Sarah Bachman. He has produced two documentary films with Tony Buba:“Ghosts of Amistad” and “Becoming Benjamin Lay.”About David LesterDavid Lester is the co-creator of the graphic novels “The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad,” “Revolution by Fire: New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741,” “Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic” and “Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay.” Translations of those volumes have been published in seven languages. He has a chapter in the anthology "Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-fascist Resistance." His poster of anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher was exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Lester is guitarist in the rock duo Mecca Normal, cited as an influence on the founders of the feminist social movement Riot Grrrl. In 2025, Rolling Stone's list of 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time included Mecca Normal's "I Walk Alone.” He lives in Vancouver, Canada.About the New Haven MuseumThe New Haven Museum has been collecting, preserving and interpreting the history and heritage of Greater New Haven since its inception as the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1862. Located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue, the Museum brings more than 375 years of New Haven history to life through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach. As a Blue Star Museum, the New Haven Museum offers the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, free admission all year. For more information visit http://newhavenmuseum.org or @NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.