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Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

No Ivy League is a new graphic novel by Hazel Newlevant, being published by Lion Forge in August. Here is her author's note to accompany the novel as well as a preview of the book to come. Hazel writes,

Dear Reader,

This book is about a pivotal summer in my life. It poked a hole in my familiar bubbles and complicated my understanding of the world. It was a multi-car pileup of race, class, gender, and teen hormones. I started working on No Ivy League five years after the events that inspired it. Now, as I finish the book, it's been a decade. I thought I started out with a complete and mature understanding of my past. It's incredible, believing over and over again that you've figured things out—only to stumble on new ways your place in society shields you from the truth. I didn't really know anything. Maybe I still don't.

How true-to-life is this memoir? All the characters' names have been changed aside from my own. Most of the dialog isn't remembered word-for-word, except in the most emotionally searing moments, which I remember clearly and I've tried to convey accurately. I wish that I could fully know and paint a picture of the experiences of my friends, my coworkers, and my parents—everyone who's been transmuted into a character in my own coming-of-age narrative. But I won't pretend that I can. Taking the reader into the feelings I was grappling with is the truest way I can tell the story.

It was a hard summer. In many ways it destroyed my image of myself as a fundamentally "good;' "well-liked" person, but grappling with those experiences has helped me become the somewhat better person I am today. It's intimidating to publish a story about my younger self doing and saying so many profoundly embarrassing and regrettable things, but I hope that it helps those who see their own shame reflected in mine resolve to move forward with compassion.

Sincerely,

Hazel Newlevant

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

Homeschooled, affluent, and sheltered, 17-year-old Hazel takes a summer job clearing ivy from the forest in Portland, Oregon, the only plan is to earn some extra cash to put toward concert tickets. Hazel soon finds that working side by side with at-risk teens leaves no room for comforting illusions of equality and understanding that was her reality up till now. This uncomfortable and compelling memoir is an important story of a teen's awakening to the racial insularity of the upper class, the power of white privilege, and the hidden history of segregation in Portland.

Hoping to make money to see an out-of-town concert, 17-year-old Hazel Newlevant takes a summer job clearing ivy from the forest in her home town of Portland, Oregon. Homeschooled, affluent, and sheltered, Hazel finds her job working side by side with at-risk teens a new world that she has no skill in navigating. She loves hip hop, but spending time with kids who are black and Latino is a new experience for her. As the weeks pass, Hazel's once-comfortable homeschooled skin has become more ill fitting. Things come to a head when she finds herself the butt of a black peer's sexual insult and, instead of trying to work it out, she reports him. The consequences of her actions play out not only for the boy but for Hazel herself, as she's forced to confront the reality of white privilege. This uncomfortable and compelling memoir is an important story of a girl's awakening to the racial insularity of her life, the power of white privilege, and the hidden story of segregation in Portland.

Hazel Newlevant's Author Note for No Ivy League

"No Ivy League is an extremely vulnerable, close-to-my-heart work, and Lion Forge and Andrea Colvin are the perfect people to publish it" says creator Hazel Newlevant. "I'm excited to send this comic out into the world, where I hope it provokes both enjoyment and self-reflection."

"Many artists gravitate toward autobiography, but Hazel's willingness—and ability—to show those parts of herself that are unlikeable, awkward, even ugly, elevates her craft," says Andrea Colvin, former VP and Executive Editor at Lion Forge. "We identify with Hazel, because we know we have those parts of ourselves as well. We cringe with her when she makes the wrong decision, and ultimately cheer her on as she forces herself to learn from her mistakes."

"Hazel promises to be a strong voice in the world of graphic novels that grapple with real-life issues like race, gender, class, and sexuality" says Tanya Mckinnon of Mckinnon McIntyre. "I believe this will garner much attention and possibly controversy as it speaks directly to ongoing debates about political correctness and white privilege."

 


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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