ARTISTS against POLICE BRUTALITY (APB), my new anthology co-edited by Bill Campbell and John Jennings, comes out this Monday from Rosarium Publishing. All proceeds from the book go towards The Innocence Project. This book was born out of anger on the evening of December 3rd, 2014, when a Grand Jury opted not to indict Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, and after talking about how we would do such a book, we opened submissions on December 15th, 2014. We compiled over 50 comics, cartoons, pin-ups, essays, and short stories from over 60 creators and, on 9/11/2015 (10 months later), the book went to print.
I’d like to talk about five pages from the book. The first two pages (which are the first two pages of the book), make up a two-page pin-up by the amazing Ashley A. Woods. Titled “Family Portrait,” this piece shows 12 victims of recent (at the time) police violence: John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Carry Ball Jr., Amadou Diallo, Tanisha Anderson, Miriam Carey, Yvette Smith, Rekia Boyd, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Woods’s piece, which was one of the first pieces we received, knocked us right out with its simple yet powerful approach to saying names and remembering the deceased.
Over the ten months we spent compiling this collection, we saw more and more reports of police violence and increasing tensions between communities. #blacklivesmatter was hijacked by #bluelivesmatter and #alllivesmatter, the conversation we were supposed to be having was turning into a group of people thumbing their nose at the issues while kids were getting beat at a pool party in McKinney, Texas. While Freddie Gray’s back was being broken in Baltimore. While Sandra Bland was dying in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas.
So that brings me to the next three pages I want to talk about. When the book was finished, I told Bill Campbell I had three pages left. “Don’t put ads in it,” he said, “This isn’t the right book for that.” He gave me carte blanche, so I put together three pages that I felt closed the book out in a way that Woods’s piece opened it. By saying names. 881 names, to be exact. The 881 people killed by police between the time we opened submissions and the the time we went to print. 881 people in ten months.
I hope you think about picking up a copy of APB. Whether you buy your own or get it at the library. The anthology is meant to highlight the issues. To move the conversation along. To say names. And, remember, all proceeds benefit The Innocence Project. We felt, from the start, that no profit should be made on this book. It should be used as a weapon of improvement, from the contents to the profits.
Thanks for listening.
Jason Rodriguez
APB will be available at local booksellers and libraries, and online at Amazon.
