Ebony Flowers

Ebony Flowers in 2019

Ebony Flowers is an American prose writer and cartoonist.

Quotes

• My process for making comics for research is very different from fiction and creative nonfiction comics. I studied how groups of young children and graduate students drew together, used drawing to play and pretend together, and drew as a means of creating new knowledge…
  • On composing a large part of her dissertation as a comic in “A Space Where Past, Present, and Future Come Together: Ebony Flowers on Hot Comb” in Los Angeles Review of Books (2019 Jul 13)

• …I’m curious about how my memories — and other people’s memories, too — are tied to the senses, particularly touch. Memories triggered by engagement with one or more of the five senses can conjure up transformative moments in a person’s life. Unexpected sounds, scents, tastes, sights, and tactile experiences can move people outside the present moment and into a more playful space where past, present, and future come together…
  • On taking an ethnographic approach to memories in “A Space Where Past, Present, and Future Come Together: Ebony Flowers on Hot Comb” in Los Angeles Review of Books (2019 Jul 13)

• …I consider these fantasy and futuristic visions as absurd as me acquiescing to someone else’s ideas about what counts as acceptable, attractive and beautiful. These parody ads are my attempt to envision a different future, in which black women inquire and inspire while loving their hair.
  • On included mock advertisements in her work Hot Comb in “WESTWORD INTERVIEWS EBONY FLOWERS” in Drawn & Quarterly (2019 Jun 18)

• …When I read comics, I’m helping people to appreciate the power of pictures with words, and of words with pictures. Reading a comic, or a graphic novel, is different from reading a novel or describing a picture book. I care about pace, setting, tension, and the lives of my characters. I need to let my drawings speak for themselves while also narrating a story that benefits from this interplay of picture and verse…
  • On doing a public reading of her graphic novel in “Denver's Ebony Flowers Debuts Graphic Novel Hot Comb” in Westword (2019 Jun 18)