Literary Partners Program: Book Launch for I AM ALFONSO JONES by Tony Medina

Attend the launch of the YA graphic novel I Am Alfonso Jones written by Tony Medina and illustrated by John Jennings and Stacey Robinson.

In this stunning work, “a teenager named Alfonso Jones is killed by an off-duty police officer, then watches from the afterlife as his family struggles to bring the shooter to justice.”

National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi said this YA gem is “brimming with history and spirituality” and is “a refreshing and necessary exploration into police brutality. With both word and art, Medina and Jennings have breathed new life into this longstanding movement.”

Come meet the creators on Thursday, October 5th at Poets House, 10 River Terrace, NYC.

Tony Medina is the author of six beloved books for young readers, as well as multiple volumes of poetry for adults. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and a professor of creative writing at Howard University, Dr. Medina is a two-time winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. He lives in the Washington, DC area.

John Jennings co-edited the Eisner-nominated anthology The Blacker the Ink. He is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside, and the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Jennings lives in California.

Stacey Robinson is an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois and an Arthur Schomburg Fellow with an MFA from the University at Buffalo. As part of the collaborative team “Black Kirby” with John Jennings, he creates graphic novels, gallery exhibitions, and lectures that deconstruct the work of artist Jack Kirby to re-imagine Black resistance spaces inspired by hip-hop, religion, the arts, and sciences. Robinson lives in Illinois.

This event is presented in partnership with Tu Books (Lee & Low) and is made possible through the Poets House Literary Partners Program. It is free and open to the public.