Sisters in Arms
I've been researching the history of the Buffalo Soldiers for the past couple years. More recently I've been delving into their participation in the American occupations of Cuba and the Philippines. Their position in these wars has often been referred to as a 'Conflict of Conscious' for obvious reasons. I wanted to make a speculative piece reflecting on the true accounts of Blacks who defected to the Filipino Insurrectionists during the Pacific war. This comic was originally produced as part of my 2018-19 fellowship with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Sisters in Arms
I've been researching the history of the Buffalo Soldiers for the past couple years. More recently I've been delving into their participation in the American occupations of Cuba and the Philippines. Their position in these wars has often been referred to as a 'Conflict of Conscious' for obvious reasons. I wanted to make a speculative piece reflecting on the true accounts of Blacks who defected to the Filipino Insurrectionists during the Pacific war.
The Black protagonist is an amalgamation of David Fagen, a soldier who defected and fought with the Filipino Resistance and Cathay Williams, the only known account of a woman who enlisted as a man in those regiments (though she didn't serve in the Philippines). It’s an ode to Afro-Asian solidarity and part of a larger project which maps moments of obscured history and interracial solidarity in the face of American Imperialism.
This comic was originally produced as part of my 2018-19 fellowship with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.