The Power of Picture Books: (Re)presenting an(other) story through dialogic zine’ing

Current times call for new methods that trouble narratives of emboldened nationalism and othering. Our presentation grows out of our discussions/graphic responses to current immigration and refugee policies that are (a)effecting the world today. Each of us draws on our love of picture books to redress dominant discourses where refugee people are constructed as nameless, faceless, groups who are oft times feared and controlled. We (re)imagine the unique and individual stories of refugees and immigrants as prompted by picture books as an alternative to current statements by American and Australian governments that render the refugee/migrant/detainee experience invisible. We then undertake dialogic zine’ing as a means to speak back to select picture books and the troubles of our era. In the process, we assume an immediate agency that gives us a new method to respond to political narratives of our times. By so doing we tell an(other) story that enables a socially critical dialogue to emerge through critical arts-based autoethnography. Through the power of picture books and zine’ing culture, we (re)imagine a pedagogy that addresses the urgent concerns of our time while also developing arts-based and visual literacy skills relevant to a 21st-century context. In so doing we turn our passive gaze into one that echoes Maxine Greene’s call for a pedagogy of social imagination. Blacklists, Safe Spaces and Digital Activism: Navigating Fan Confrontations