Wake Now In The Fire by Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo
In 2013, Chicago Public Schools banned Persepolis. It became clear pretty quickly that many within the district had no idea why the graphic novel became a target, nor why it was removed.
This graphic novel tells the story of the book’s removal from CPS, centering the voices, perspectives, and advocacy of students in the district who uncovered what was happening and why. Author Dapier conducted countless interviews with students who participated, and his own early research into the ban helped inform the highly readable comic. Dungo’s illustrations do a great job of rendering the highs and lows of this censorship battle.
Many of the threads seen in today’s censorship efforts are clear in this story from over a decade ago, including how students were quick to recognize that stories from marginalized perspectives are most easily targeted. This comic is clever in mirroring the style of Persepolis, too: it’s a work that straddles the line of fiction and nonfiction–the story and situation are very real, but some of the dialogue and sketching out of the central characters required some imagination. It’s wild to think that 2013 was both not that long ago and, at the same time, generations ago.