San Diego has a joyful new way to hear history told by the people who lived it first. Kumeyaay Comics by the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project, new at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park, is an immersive exhibition inspired by the two-part graphic novel Our Past, Present, and Future and Beyond Gaming, created by Kumeyaay scholars and historians Ethan Banegas, Michael Connolly Miskwish, Lorraine Orosco and Stanley Rodriguez, with vibrant illustrations by John Swogger.
Inside, Beyond Gaming becomes a walk-through of a community gathering with tribal historians, while Our Past, Present, and Future unfolds as a series of two-page spreads telling histories from Kumeyaay perspectives. The beloved Kumeyaay Cosmology exhibition, which opened in 2015, remains on display alongside it, making this a wonderful moment to experience both together.
The project is a partnership between Kumeyaay Nation members and the co-producers of NAGPRA Comics, pioneers of Community Engaged Comics: graphic narratives that are thoughtfully researched, community authored and community vetted. The Museum of Us, located on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay Nation and open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., also helps share a free traveling banner version of the exhibition with community organizations across San Diego County. It is history, art and welcome, all in bright comic color, and Happy City News loves it.
Photo: Museum of Us
