America Redux: Author Talk with Ariel Aberg-Riger
Toward the end of last year, I came across Ariel Aberg-Riger’s article “The City-Dweller’s Guide to Time Travel.” It had been published by CityLab in 2020, during the early days of the pandemic. It was a visual guide for how to discover the history of your neighborhood, without leaving home. It was delightful, and I immediately needed to know more about the person who made it. I found my way to Ariel’s website and saw that she had a book coming out. Based on the description, it seemed like a perfect Preservation Book Club pick. I reached out, and she graciously accepted my invitation to do an author talk.
America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History was published this May as a Young Adult offering. It is accessible in a way that makes it perfect for students, but engaging enough that adults should not hesitate to read it as well. As I said during the webinar, I really can’t recommend this book enough! The history she tackles is wide ranging, covering everything from Abolition to Urban Renewal. For her author talk, Ariel did a reading from the book and detailed the behind-the-scenes process of how a chapter was put together.
Some resources mentioned during the Q&A:
In talking about her process as a visual storyteller, Ariel mentioned a running list she keeps of public domain image sources. You can find that here.
A few highlights of Ariel’s articles include pieces on the history of the American public library; a piece about SROs; and a visual history of mutual aid.
Ariel referenced a series of billboards and bus shelter ads that she designed as part of Our City Action Buffalo. And you can listen to an interview she did about that project on WBFO, Buffalo’s NPR station.
During the Q&A, Ariel mentioned some of her favorite visual storytellers. Here are a few she shared with us:
Lauren Redniss (her visual book Radioactive changed my life!)
Mira Jacob (her book Good Talk is a wonderful visual memoir about race in America)
Wendy MacNaughton (calls herself a "drawn journalist" has done a column for the NYT, and has visual books)
Nora Krug (book about German/America identity, called Belonging)
Maira Kalman (incredible, painterly children's books, and longer visual books about history)
Kelcy Ervick (has a great drawn book about women's soccer called The Keeper)
Leanne Shapton (does more illustrative meditative stuff)
Chanel Miller (does beautiful visual stories on IG)
Ariel Aberg-Riger is a self-taught artist whose work has been featured in gallery shows, magazines, newspapers, apps, plates, and even in a hit card game. She is focused on using the power of visual storytelling to explore issues of equity and social justice, encouraging readers to think differently about history, science, policy, and the other forces that shape our lives. Ariel lives with her wife and kids in sunny Buffalo, NY. She is a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Nonfiction Literature, and a member of the Tin House 2020 Summer Workshop. She is represented by Jenny Stephens at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.
America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History explores the themes that create our shared sense of American identity and interrogates the myths we’ve been telling ourselves for centuries. With iconic American catchphrases as chapter titles, these twenty-one visual stories illuminate the astonishing, unexpected, sometimes darker sides of history that reverberate in our society to this very day — from the role of celebrity in immigration policy to the influence of one small group of white women on education to the effects of “progress” on housing and the environment, to the inspiring force of collective action and mutual aid across decades and among diverse groups.
Fully illustrated with collaged archival photographs, maps, documents, graphic elements, and handwritten text, this book is a dazzling, immersive experience that jumps around in time and will make you view history in a whole different light.
Thank you to our sponsor, the Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.