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Reading List
Kiona and Michelle shared some of their favourite graphic novels during this episode. Below is a list of the books we discussed. Purchase from your fave indie bookstore or directly from the publisher if you can!

• We Were Younger Once by Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet

• Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

• This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

• Big Kids by Michael DeForge

• Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu

• This is How I Disappear by Mirion Malle

• Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalt

• Condolady by Elisabeth Beliveau

• Here by Richard McGuire

Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist practicing in amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty 6 Territory. She grew up West of the city near the hamlet of Calahoo where she lived with her relatives on scrip land. Her family lines are Cree and Métis descending from Michel First Nation, as well as Dutch and mixed European. 

Kiona works in painting, printmaking, and drawing, recollecting personal stories of grief and tenderness. Her practice uses a non-linear telling of her memories through narrative work as a form of diaristic archiving. It draws from feelings of loss and enfranchisement, but also from deep belly laughter, and a gentle fondness for where the histories between herself and her family overlap and disperse.

She’s recently exhibited work at Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre (2021), Latitude 53 (2021, 2022), Khyber Centre for the Arts (2021), Harcourt House (2022), and Neutral Ground (2022). She co-curated the soil between plants with Making Space (2022), and What’s Held through TREX NW and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (2022). Additionally, Kiona was a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor Emerging Artist Award (2022), and just finished her debut graphic novel with Conundrum Press, titled We Were Younger Once (2022). 

Working alongside other artists in initiatives of community care, Kiona co-organizes Making Space in partnership with Sanaa Humayun. She likes visiting her moshom on the farm, and gossiping with her mom, relatives, and friends on the prairies.

Michelle Campos Castillo is a Salvadoran visual artist living in Edmonton. She has been the recipient of several public art commissions from the City of Edmonton, including Platanos, a set of three sculptures on permanent display at Belvedere Transit Centre, and is finalizing artwork for the LRT Valley Line in the west end of the city. Her most recent exhibits are a solo show, Terremoto, presented in the summer of 2022 at grunt gallery in Vancouver, BC and as part of Imborrable at the National Gallery in San Salvador, El Salvador. She is currently working on a graphic memoir titled Colonia, based on her life in El Salvador during the country’s civil war.

Hannah Quimper-Swiderski (she/they) is a visual artist, curator, and Digital Program Manager at Latitude 53. They currently live and work in Edmonton-Amiswaciwâskahikan.

Transcript

Transcript coming soon.