Recently, Dr. Veronica Appleton, a business executive, author and teacher, released her fourth book, a comic titled Mama Why.
In the comic, the main character is a young boy named Malcom. After losing two friends to gun violence, Malcom decides to take matters into his own hands, and becomes an advocate for peace. Dedicating the book to all children and families affected by gun violence, Appleton uses her passion for writing as a means to inspire the youth.
Mama Why not only explains, but also illustrates to youth the impact that one person can have, even a child. Released on July 9, the comic is available at Wal-Mart and other sellers.
This month, The TRiiBE spoke to the South Side native about the comic.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
The TRiiBE: What sparks your desire for education and your desire to teach?
Dr. Veronica Appleton: I love that question. You know, growing up, getting an education was a non-negotiable in my household.
I was raised by a single mother, but [I was] also raised around a village of women in my house. My mother is one of 14, and so at a given time in our family home, it would be maybe nine of us living there. So it would be a mix of cousins, uncles, aunts, and then me and my mother. So education was something that was just part of the landscape that my mother created for me. So going to college was a non negotiable.
I’ve always wanted to teach, and I knew that it was important to kind of go the long route in order to get to where I needed to be. There was a moment during my second year of college where I had kind of a eureka moment, and this was when I wrote my first children’s book, which was eventually released in 2016. That book was called Journey to Appleville. It was kind of a play on my last name, which was a way for me to feel as if I’m inspiring kids to accomplish their goals and to accomplish their dreams, while also, in the same vein, helping myself accomplish my goals and my dreams. So as I was writing to what would be the future readers of Journey to Appleville, I was also reading and writing for myself, just in a form of motivation and inspiration. So it was a really great way for me to inspire, just through writing.
What takes up the bulk of your time these days, and how are you getting everything done?
You know, I would say the bulk of my time is often spent in corporate America, that’s for sure. I do have that traditional nine to five job, and what I love is that each of the roles that I serve in my day to day life, they all have some connective tissue. I may have on a different hat, but the foundation is the same equity, inclusion, creating community, creating value, impact.
Each of those roles that I have, they connect in a multitude of ways. So when I think of the role that takes up most of my time, it is my corporate job, and it is also teaching. I teach for DePaul University as an adjunct professor. In November, it’ll be nine years, which is really, really great. I teach intercultural communication courses, organizational theory courses, and a few other classes. And then I teach a women’s leadership course from Yale University, which is kind of a short six week module, so it’s really compact, but I get to meet women all across the globe that are passionate and interested about leadership.
I really, really do enjoy the work that I do, and as long as I’m able to inspire somebody, or at least connect somebody with someone else, that’s what gets me pumped up and excited for what’s next.
Let’s dig into what really makes you write? Why do you love writing?
Yeah, I love that question. I love writing because it places me in a mode of shaping and creating narratives that relate to something that I may have gone through. Or something that may have been inspired by what my mother, family member or friend has gone through. So being able to develop characters that can help shape those narratives, I get excited about. That’s my creative outlet, that’s where I get to have some fun, but also get to create a lesson out of it. Mama Why stems from that. It is directly tied to the stories that we see on the news every day, where many people in our community, our black community, are losing their lives because of violence.
There’s a significant impact of gun violence in our community. So I wanted to create something that could help shape that narrative, but through the eyes of a child. something that would resonate, where a child could process along with the essential adults in their lives. We know that many kids don’t grow up in a traditional household with mom and dad. From time to time, there were grandma and grandpa, or there was aunt and uncle, or there were sister, brother, cousin, so on and so forth, or maybe even the neighbor. So I wanted to help shape something that would signal, let’s encourage our kids to process the violence that they may see or that they may encounter in real life, and how do we create those stories, but also help shape that sense of activism in them, where they feel inspired to do more, to say more, to speak up, and to feel inspired to create some form of change. That’s what I wanted to do with this comic book Mama Why.
Why did you choose to make a comic this time? Will it be a true comic with the illustrations, the mouth bubbles, things of that nature? Why did you choose this format?
So I have a friend, his name is Chris Walker, (who is) the editor on this comic book as well. I was talking to him, and he said, “Veronica, have you ever thought about just working on a comic book?” I said, “well, I mean, you know, I would consider it.” So we worked on the art. We worked on the copy for three years. We got it to perfection, into what we thought was perfection. [Then] I took it to the publisher, got it ready. I sat on the project for a year because I wanted to make sure that it was done right. And what I mean by that is I didn’t want to release the comic without having the tools to go along with it. And so I spent time developing a discussion guide that could be utilized in classrooms and also in the home to spark conversation with the children that are in the lives of these adults.
I [also] reached out to four of my favorite organizations throughout the city, and I said, I want to share an ad of your organization in this comic book, because I want people to know about the work that you do. So this comic book is a toolkit in many ways, to help shape and reshape what we think about violence, what we think about community challenges, but also how we can reshape the ways that we show up as change makers and creators of solutions as it relates to this topic.
Dr Appleton, let’s talk about Supacell for a moment. You’ve said the series inspired you. What is it about a superhero story, specifically Supacell that motivated you so much?
When we think about superheroes, they’re not just the folks with the cape that are, you know, flying across cities or anything like that, or climbing buildings. They are people, ordinary people, right in our neighborhood. And we have to reshape the way that we see superheroes, and that’s what I wanted to do with Malcolm, the little boy on the cover.
This comic book is designed for those that are like nine-to-12 years old. Malcolm is a superhero. He’s somebody that feels inspired to create some form of change in his community.
Although we’re talking about gun violence, it is not meant to be limited just to gun violence. When we think about the things that affect kids each and every day, that includes bullying, that includes mental and emotional violence, it includes suicide, it includes social and emotional learning and defects in that learning, or even just delays in child development. Violence can look like a multitude of different ways or harmful environments in the home.
Last remarks from Dr. Veronica Appleton
Across the US, a Black American is shot and wounded every 11 minutes. When we think about who those Black Americans may be, we can know for certain that when it comes to firearms, an average of 183 children and teens die each year. So we count in those minutes and the number of teens and children that die every year, every second.
We need to be educating our kids about how to have a conversation about safety [and] how to feel comfortable about talking about these topics. How to signal the difference between positive and negative law enforcement. How to know the difference between someone that’s bullying us or not championing us in the way that we’re supposed to, and how we can be our own inner superhero. Because that’s something that we need.
I would also say, if anybody wants to learn about Mama Why, they can visit mamawhybook.com, all retailers are listed there. It’s an important way to help shape what is next when we think about educating our children and our future.
The post ‘Mama Why’ comic book inspires youth activism in the fight against gun violence appeared first on The TRiiBE.
