Programs & Events
Hello Barkada is proud to be community-made, and strives to provide free access to its content and programming as much as possible. When free access isn't possible, our goal is to keep entry fees as low as possible.
If you've enjoyed our programs, please consider leaving a $4 tip via our crowd fund in support of our ongoing programs and future educational panels.
We're also open to sponsorships! Funds earned via sponsorships help us provide more freelance opportunities to artists and writers. Please email contact[at]hellobarkada.org for more information.
WATCH THE PLAYBACK ON INSTAGRAM
In this special panel edition, writers and editors Amanda Meadows (Oni/Limerence Press), Jamila Rowser (Black Josei Press), and Kiara Valdez (First Second) joined Hello Barkada's Christine Pasalo Norland to discuss what it takes to produce projects that excite them and how comics and book publishing must change to treat creators as humans, not machines.
Allowed is Hello Barkada's livestream interview series in which artists and writers share aloud the influences and intentions behind their work. Be sure to follow @HelloBarkada on Instagram and turn on "Goes Live" notification to join each IG Live once they begin. To watch Christine's past conversations with Trinidad Escobar, Steenz, Jamila Rowser & Robyn Smith, Nicky Rodriguez, and Karen Alleluia, visit Hello Barkada's IG Reels or YouTube channel.
WATCH THE PLAYBACK ON INSTAGRAM
Bay area-based cartoonist MariNaomi joined us to talk about friendships, memory, and their upcoming collage-comics memoir I Thought You Loved Me (Fieldmouse Press, 2023).
Allowed is Hello Barkada's livestream interview series in which artists and writers share aloud the influences and intentions behind their work.
WATCH THE PLAYBACK ON INSTAGRAM
Follow @JonitaLDavis and @HelloBarkada on Instagram! In episode 3, special guest Lacey Vorrasi-Banis joined Jonita Davis and Christine Pasalo Norland to discuss the coverage of Disney's Turning Red, how the CinemaBlend review of the movie exposes systemic problems in mainstream entertainment journalism, and how talent and PR teams can help reset the film-review landscape to include more reviewers from historically marginalized communities.
The Call Out is based on Davis' Medium Essay, "Why I Am Calling Out All Colonizer Criticism and What That Means for You."
Jade Seaberry of DiverseToons hosts Hello Barkada Founder Christine Pasalo Norland for a Instagram Live series about bringing panels to pop culture conventions, including WonderCon Anaheim and Comic-Con International.
MARCH 25–26, 2023
Listen to the Hello Barkada Takes WonderCon 2023 playlist!
Hello Barkada is excited to host Amanda Meadows, Sandra Equihua, and Elizabeth Ito on From Burnout to Brainstorm on Saturday, March 25, in Room 300E, and Lea Anderson, Malissa White, Reyna Cervantes, Viktor Kerney, and John Jennings on Horror, Thriller, or Neither on Sunday, March 26, in Room 209 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The annual spring show and sibling event to Comic-Con International takes place Friday, March 24, to Sunday, March 26.
VIRTUOUS CON: BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023
Listen to the Give Us the Punk Spotify playlist!
Comics creators Bianca Xunise, FeliceY, and Raeghan Buchanan discussed what it means to be punk in art and comics, who inspired the direction of their work, and which recent and upcoming projects they're excited about in comics, music, and beyond. Moderated by Christine Pasalo Norland. Inspired by comic artist Sharon Lee De La Cruz's panel "Punk Feminism" for the 2021 Latinx Comics Arts Festival.
Hello Barkada tabled for the first time EVER at the 10th annual San Diego Zine Fest! Thank to everyone who visited and purchased an item during this debut tabling event, we've raised about 75% of the funds needed to commission a second cartoonist for the Hello Barkada Comics series in 2023. 20% of the profits has also bumped up the donation planned for The Kumeyaay Elementary School Foundation to $50.
We're excited to see the work of those who took a copy of What Barkada Means to Me, a pre-folded mini-zine given away for free with purchase and made up of blank inner pages that the maker is asked to fill with their ideas and thoughts of "chosen family", aka barkada. The art can be illustrated, collage, written—the medium and method is up to them! Once filled, makers are encouraged to share their completed zines with @HelloBarkada and #CollectivelyHB.
Special thanks to Social Dropouts for their support in the making of the buttons, and to Elements Dance Space for providing the paper for What Barkada Means to Me.
VIRTUAL & IN-PERSON
Hello Barkada presents the first annual Collectively, a month-long event made up of a series of programs and publications hosted throughout September 2022, Hello Barkada's anniversary month.
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: SAN DIEGO 2022
Deb Aoki (The Mangasplaining Podcast), Jamila Rowser (Black Josei Press), Dr. Shamika A. Mitchell (WinC Magazine), Jessica Tseang (The Kaiju Podcast), and Laura Neuzeth (YouTube and TikTok manga vlogger) discussed the appeal and impact of josei manga, and the creators they're following from and beyond Japan for comics from the lens of, and for, women and femmes. Panel idea developed with Jamila Rowser. Moderated by Christine Pasalo Norland (founder and president, Hello Barkada).
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SEE THE PANEL RECORDING • Subscribe to Laura Neuzeth's YouTube Channel
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: SAN DIEGO 2022
The pace and pay structure of publishing has it so that writers and cartoonists take on multiple comics and book projects with other work to earn a living wage. Writer Jamila Rowser (Wash Day Diaries, Ode to Keisha, Wash Day), cartoonist Amber Padilla (The Secret Garden on 81st Street), writer Regine Sawyer (WinC, Lockett Down Productions), and writer Amy Chu (Turning Red: The Graphic Novel, Poison Ivy, Red Sonja) discussed the mental, physical, and financial impact of these practices, and raise ideas for enabling storytellers to have a long career doing what they love and what fans love reading. Moderated by Christine Pasalo Norland (founder and president, Hello Barkada).
VIRTUOUS CON: BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022
Our first livestream program of Virtuous Con weekend focused on counterculture and featured Bianca Xunise ("Six Chix"), Steenz ("Heart of the City"), Lawrence Lindell (Couldn't Afford Therapy, So I Made This), Breena Nuñez (Fonny Phases), and Sharon Lee De La Cruz (I'm a Wild Seed). Inspired by De La Cruz's panel "Punk Feminism" for the 2021 Latinx Comic Arts Festival.
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WATCH A 15-MINUTE CLIP • Become a Virtuous Con Power Pass Patron to watch the full playback
VIRTUOUS CON: BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022
How do we reset and reclaim conversations around film? Independent film critics Jonita Davis (The Black CAPE Magazine), Starr Rocque (Bloggers Can't Be Trusted), and Jeandra Lebeauf (BadCulture TV) shared their insight and ideas in this discussion that called back to the work of bell hooks and Toni Morrison on cultural criticism. Moderated by Christine Pasalo Norland (founder and president, Hello Barkada).
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WATCH A 15-MINUTE CLIP • Become a Virtuous Con Power Pass Patron to watch the full playback
VIRTUOUS CON: BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022
In our final panel of the weekend, iconic cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft ("Where I'm Coming From") and comics curator Tara Nakashima Donahue (Medialia Gallery) shared the story behind their exhibit centering Brandon-Croft's work alongside the work of her late father Brumsic Brandon Jr., the cartoonist behind the comic strip "Luther." Moderated by Christine Pasalo Norland (founder and president, Hello Barkada).
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WATCH A 15-MINUTE CLIP • Become a Virtuous Con Power Pass Patron to watch the full playback
WOMEN IN COMICS COLLECTIVE INTERNATIONAL
Playback link in the article! Hello Barkada and Women in Comics Collective International (WinC) present "Celebrating Jackie Ormes," a free virtual panel that took place on Thursday, October 28, 2021 and features cartoonists Barbara Brandon-Croft, Bianca Xunise, and Steenz.