Meet Malaka Gharib, a celebrated journalist, cartoonist, and author of the award-winning graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. In this fun and interactive hour-long workshop, Malaka will share what it’s like to be a professional cartoonist and show examples of her inspiring work. Then, you’ll explore different cartoon styles, see examples of other comics, and use templates to create your very own comic. Malaka will be there to guide you every step of the way! This workshop is perfect for all elementary-aged kids who love to draw, tell stories, and dream big.
Malaka Gharib is a journalist, cartoonist and graphic novelist. She is the author of I Was Their American Dream, a graphic memoir published in 2019 about being first-generation Filipino Egyptian American, which won an Arab American Book Award in 2020. Then in 2022, she published It Won't Always Be Like This, a graphic memoir about her summers in the Middle East.
By day, she works as a digital editor at NPR for Life Kit, a lifestyle podcast about health, finance, relationships and more. Her comics and writing have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Catapult, The Believer Magazine and The New Yorker. She has been profiled in The Washington Post and The New York Times. Some of her comics and zines are archived at the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, the Arab American Museum and Barnard College’s Zine Library. Her art and writing has been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Harvard Radcliffe Institute and Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery. She lives in Nashville, Tenn., with her husband, son and Shiba Inu.
Malaka is new to The Porch. Welcome!