{"id":176,"date":"2015-04-13T08:34:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T08:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microcosmpublishing.dev\/blog\/2015\/04\/challenging-stereotypes-an-interview-with-lisa-wilde-of-yo-miss\/"},"modified":"2016-02-02T17:33:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T17:33:06","slug":"challenging-stereotypes-an-interview-with-lisa-wilde-of-yo-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/challenging-stereotypes-an-interview-with-lisa-wilde-of-yo-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Stereotypes: An Interview with Lisa Wilde of Yo Miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lisaLast month, we felt lucky and stoked to publish Yo, Miss: A Graphic Look at High School<\/a>, <\/em>Lisa Wilde’s nonfiction graphic novel about teaching at an inner-city second chance high school. Since then, the rest of the world has been falling in love with the book just like we did\u2014it’s been getting glowing reviews, and readers are quickly picking it up and keeping it close. I asked Lisa some questions over email about her road to publication and some back story and updates to the stories in the book. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before Yo, Miss<\/em> was a book, it was a series of comics zines. What led you to start making those, and what was the transition to traditional format publishing like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yo, Miss <\/em> is my first book. I\u2019d never drawn cartoons before, and I turned 60 this past summer \u2013 all of which fits with why I teach at Wildcat. In many ways, what the school is about (and what I hope the book is about) is confronting stereotypes. In other words, the potential that is inherent in all of us that just needs a little help or the right circumstances to allow it to come out.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In society\u2019s eyes, I have no credibility in terms of making a graphic book, much less getting it positively reviewed. In society\u2019s eyes, most of our students are perceived a little like Ellison\u2019s invisible man\u2014either as a threat or not seen at all. What we at Wildcat try to do is to allow our students\u2019 potential to come out, and challenge whatever stereotype society wants to place on them, along with the stereotypes they may place on themselves.<\/p>\n

The idea for Yo, Miss<\/em> was always as a graphic book. This choice may have been because I was inexperienced, but I also had nothing to lose by dreaming big. And once I started making Yo, Miss<\/em>, the process was so interesting that finishing it was never in question.<\/p>\n

Publishing was a whole other deal. During most of the process, there wasn\u2019t time to think about anything beyond what I was doing. But at a certain point, I realized I wanted to see if I could get this out into the world in some way. I was given Microcosm\u2019s name by another publisher, so I contacted Joe and he asked if he could publish Yo <\/em> as a series of zines. I said yes immediately, and then went to the Internet to find out what a zine was. Once I found out, I was thrilled.<\/p>\n

Joe, for me, was someone who saw my potential outside of stereotypes, and for that I am eternally grateful. And then he took the next risk, which was to publish it as a book. Having Yo <\/em> come out as zines<\/a> before it came out as a book was incredibly helpful for me in many, many ways. Between the performances and other promotion, I got a much better idea of how to move this book out into the world, which is something very different than making the book.<\/p>\n

What next? Will you be drawing more Yo Miss comics? Will you continue (or are you still) teaching at Wildcat, the second chance high school depicted in the book? Other big projects on the horizon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s up next? I always feel like the air space above Kennedy Airport around 7:00 in the evening \u2013 all those planes circling around waiting to land. My second book\u2014Lacunae: a Diary in Pictures\u2014<\/em>is just about ready to send out. It\u2019s another book with words and drawings, though it isn\u2019t in comics form.  (And unfortunately it\u2019s not up Microcosm\u2019s alley. All the drawings are color, and there are a lot of them.) The images are visceral, emotional and archetypal\u2014kind of a combination of Charlotte Salomon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jung. I hope to get the dummy of my third book, Noah and the Boa Dance Round the World<\/em> (a children\u2019s book), completed by the end of summer. I\u2019m not going to even mention the idea for the fourth book (but it is great!)  My biggest issue is time. I still work full-time at Wildcat \u2013 and love it, though (as I described in the book) I am almost always tired.<\/p>\n

There’s a tug of war right now about the future of public education in the US. If you were spirited away today to Washington to give policy recommendations to the president, what would they be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I was asked to give policymakers advice in terms of public education, I would say three things: 1) use standardized tests as one narrow measure of success instead of the defining concept, 2) do the math and see that standardized testing and technology are not cheaper solutions in terms of improving educational performance (and recognize that their connection to improving performance is also questionable.) and 3) take some of the money poured into standardized testing and technology and use it to reduce class size, increase noncore classes like art, music, dance, school sports, etc., and provide meaningful classroom support to improve classroom teaching.<\/p>\n

Because of what has happened with computers, the world is in a seismic shift in terms of using data to inform decisions. However, society is still in the early phases of this shift and too often data is seen as meaningful simply because it is data i.e. a score on a standardized test = what someone knows, whether the test is meaningful or not. Going along with that (and this is why I begin the first chapter with the quote attributed to Einstein) is the idea that things that aren\u2019t easily measured must not be valuable.<\/p>\n

If academic growth is the only value for education, society loses. <\/p>\n

\"yoReading Yo Miss, it was easy to get attached to a lot of the students. Can you share any “where are they now”s with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you probably know, the students in Yo, Miss<\/em> are fictionalized composites. I did that for confidentiality, but also I tried to be as true to who our students are as possible, and most characters had many models. We have had many students like Danny, the boy who kept calling me \u201cSnowflake.\u201d One student, Joe Garcia (who called Oedipus<\/em> \u201cstupid\u201d) is now a union electrician, making more money than me. I spotted another Danny model on the subway awhile back. There was a kid sitting across from me, deeply involved in a thick hardback book. It looked like one of our graduates, but the kid wouldn\u2019t look up\u2014he was so into the book\u2014so I couldn\u2019t be sure. Finally, when he reached his stop, our eyes met and it was indeed Keith Wooten\u2014former bane of every Wildcat staff member. Tyrell Bramble, whose poem Life and Times of Young Rellington<\/em> is recited by Will, was back visiting Wildcat a few weeks ago. He\u2019s now a nurse. However, I don\u2019t mean to give the impression that it\u2019s all positive. Another model for Will\u2014a student who we all loved who dropped out before graduation\u2014was killed by 23 bullets in a gang hit.<\/p>\n

Jessica De La Rosa, the model for Janis Diaz (the student who has osteogenisis imperfecta), graduated from John Jay College and on April 16th she and I are going to be at CWE, a branch of City College, talking about the book and the importance of challenging stereotypes. Jessica is an inspiration and a force of nature\u2014foster parenting three disabled children, competing in national rowing events, and promoting disability rights. She is also a dear friend. <\/p>\n

\n

This interview with Yo, Miss<\/a> author Lisa Wilde is part of a series of interviews with Microcosm authors. The last interview was with Katie Haegele<\/a> and the next one is with Andy Singer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yo, Miss is my first book. I\u2019d never drawn cartoons before, and I turned 60 this past summer \u2013 all of which fits with why I teach at Wildcat. In many ways, what the school is about (and what I hope the book is about) is confronting stereotypes. In other words, the potential that is inherent in all of us that just needs a little help or the right circumstances to allow it to come out.<\/p>\n

In society\u2019s eyes, I have no credibility in terms of making a graphic book, much less getting it positively reviewed. In society\u2019s eyes, most of our students are perceived a little like Ellison\u2019s invisible man\u2014either as a threat or not seen at all. What we at Wildcat try to do is to allow our students\u2019 potential to come out, and challenge whatever stereotype society wants to place on them, along with the stereotypes they may place on themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,11],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogifesto","tag-books","tag-interviews"],"my_excerpt":"

\"lisaLast month, we felt lucky and stoked to publish Yo, Miss: A Graphic Look at High School<\/a>, <\/em>Lisa Wilde's nonfiction graphic novel about teaching at an inner-city second chance high school. Since then, the rest of the world has been falling in love with the book just like we did\u2014it's been getting glowing reviews, and readers are quickly picking it up and keeping it close. I asked Lisa some questions over email about her road to publication and some back story and updates to the stories in the book. <\/span><\/p>

Before Yo, Miss<\/em> was a book, it was a series of comics zines. What led you to start making those, and what was the transition to traditional format publishing like?<\/strong><\/p>

Yo, Miss <\/em> is my first book. I\u2019d never drawn cartoons before, and I turned 60 this past summer \u2013 all of which fits with why I teach at Wildcat. In many ways, what the school is about (and what I hope the book is about) is confronting stereotypes. In other words, the potential that is inherent in all of us that just needs a little help or the right circumstances to allow it to come out.<\/o:p><\/p>

In society\u2019s eyes, I have no credibility in terms of making a graphic book, much less getting it positively reviewed. In society\u2019s eyes, most of our students are perceived a little like Ellison\u2019s invisible man\u2014either as a threat or not seen at all. What we at Wildcat try to do is to allow our students\u2019 potential to come out, and challenge whatever stereotype society wants to place on them, along with the stereotypes they may place on themselves.<\/p>

The idea for Yo, Miss<\/em> was always as a graphic book. This choice may have been because I was inexperienced, but I also had nothing to lose by dreaming big. And once I started making Yo, Miss<\/em>, the process was so interesting that finishing it was never in question.<\/p>

Publishing was a whole other deal. During most of the process, there wasn\u2019t time to think about anything beyond what I was doing. But at a certain point, I realized I wanted to see if I could get this out into the world in some way. I was given Microcosm\u2019s name by another publisher, so I contacted Joe and he asked if he could publish Yo <\/em> as a series of zines. I said yes immediately, and then went to the Internet to find out what a zine was. Once I found out, I was thrilled.<\/p>

Joe, for me, was someone who saw my potential outside of stereotypes, and for that I am eternally grateful. And then he took the next risk, which was to publish it as a book. Having Yo <\/em> come out as zines<\/a> before it came out as a book was incredibly helpful for me in many, many ways. Between the performances and other promotion, I got a much better idea of how to move this book out into the world, which is something very different than making the book.<\/p>

What next? Will you be drawing more Yo Miss comics? Will you continue (or are you still) teaching at Wildcat, the second chance high school depicted in the book? Other big projects on the horizon?<\/strong><\/p>

What\u2019s up next? I always feel like the air space above Kennedy Airport around 7:00 in the evening \u2013 all those planes circling around waiting to land. My second book\u2014Lacunae: a Diary in Pictures\u2014<\/em>is just about ready to send out. It\u2019s another book with words and drawings, though it isn\u2019t in comics form.  (And unfortunately it\u2019s not up Microcosm\u2019s alley. All the drawings are color, and there are a lot of them.) The images are visceral, emotional and archetypal\u2014kind of a combination of Charlotte Salomon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jung. I hope to get the dummy of my third book, Noah and the Boa Dance Round the World<\/em> (a children\u2019s book), completed by the end of summer. I\u2019m not going to even mention the idea for the fourth book (but it is great!)  My biggest issue is time. I still work full-time at Wildcat \u2013 and love it, though (as I described in the book) I am almost always tired.<\/p>

There's a tug of war right now about the future of public education in the US. If you were spirited away today to Washington to give policy recommendations to the president, what would they be?<\/strong><\/p>

If I was asked to give policymakers advice in terms of public education, I would say three things: 1) use standardized tests as one narrow measure of success instead of the defining concept, 2) do the math and see that standardized testing and technology are not cheaper solutions in terms of improving educational performance (and recognize that their connection to improving performance is also questionable.) and 3) take some of the money poured into standardized testing and technology and use it to reduce class size, increase noncore classes like art, music, dance, school sports, etc., and provide meaningful classroom support to improve classroom teaching.<\/p>

Because of what has happened with computers, the world is in a seismic shift in terms of using data to inform decisions. However, society is still in the early phases of this shift and too often data is seen as meaningful simply because it is data i.e. a score on a standardized test = what someone knows, whether the test is meaningful or not. Going along with that (and this is why I begin the first chapter with the quote attributed to Einstein) is the idea that things that aren\u2019t easily measured must not be valuable.<\/p>

If academic growth is the only value for education, society loses. <\/p>

\"yoReading Yo Miss, it was easy to get attached to a lot of the students. Can you share any \"where are they now\"s with us?<\/strong><\/p>

As you probably know, the students in Yo, Miss<\/em> are fictionalized composites. I did that for confidentiality, but also I tried to be as true to who our students are as possible, and most characters had many models. We have had many students like Danny, the boy who kept calling me \u201cSnowflake.\u201d One student, Joe Garcia (who called Oedipus<\/em> \u201cstupid\u201d) is now a union electrician, making more money than me. I spotted another Danny model on the subway awhile back. There was a kid sitting across from me, deeply involved in a thick hardback book. It looked like one of our graduates, but the kid wouldn\u2019t look up\u2014he was so into the book\u2014so I couldn\u2019t be sure. Finally, when he reached his stop, our eyes met and it was indeed Keith Wooten\u2014former bane of every Wildcat staff member. Tyrell Bramble, whose poem Life and Times of Young Rellington<\/em> is recited by Will, was back visiting Wildcat a few weeks ago. He\u2019s now a nurse. However, I don\u2019t mean to give the impression that it\u2019s all positive. Another model for Will\u2014a student who we all loved who dropped out before graduation\u2014was killed by 23 bullets in a gang hit.<\/p>

Jessica De La Rosa, the model for Janis Diaz (the student who has osteogenisis imperfecta), graduated from John Jay College and on April 16th she and I are going to be at CWE, a branch of City College, talking about the book and the importance of challenging stereotypes. Jessica is an inspiration and a force of nature\u2014foster parenting three disabled children, competing in national rowing events, and promoting disability rights. She is also a dear friend. <\/p>

This interview with Yo, Miss<\/a> author Lisa Wilde is part of a series of interviews with Microcosm authors. The last interview was with Katie Haegele<\/a> and the next one is with Andy Singer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","my_excerpt_rendered":"

\"lisaLast month, we felt lucky and stoked to publish Yo, Miss: A Graphic Look at High School<\/a>, <\/em>Lisa Wilde’s nonfiction graphic novel about teaching at an inner-city second chance high school. Since then, the rest of the world has been falling in love with the book just like we did\u2014it’s been getting glowing reviews, and readers are quickly picking it up and keeping it close. I asked Lisa some questions over email about her road to publication and some back story and updates to the stories in the book. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before Yo, Miss<\/em> was a book, it was a series of comics zines. What led you to start making those, and what was the transition to traditional format publishing like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yo, Miss <\/em> is my first book. I\u2019d never drawn cartoons before, and I turned 60 this past summer \u2013 all of which fits with why I teach at Wildcat. In many ways, what the school is about (and what I hope the book is about) is confronting stereotypes. In other words, the potential that is inherent in all of us that just needs a little help or the right circumstances to allow it to come out.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In society\u2019s eyes, I have no credibility in terms of making a graphic book, much less getting it positively reviewed. In society\u2019s eyes, most of our students are perceived a little like Ellison\u2019s invisible man\u2014either as a threat or not seen at all. What we at Wildcat try to do is to allow our students\u2019 potential to come out, and challenge whatever stereotype society wants to place on them, along with the stereotypes they may place on themselves.<\/p>\n

The idea for Yo, Miss<\/em> was always as a graphic book. This choice may have been because I was inexperienced, but I also had nothing to lose by dreaming big. And once I started making Yo, Miss<\/em>, the process was so interesting that finishing it was never in question.<\/p>\n

Publishing was a whole other deal. During most of the process, there wasn\u2019t time to think about anything beyond what I was doing. But at a certain point, I realized I wanted to see if I could get this out into the world in some way. I was given Microcosm\u2019s name by another publisher, so I contacted Joe and he asked if he could publish Yo <\/em> as a series of zines. I said yes immediately, and then went to the Internet to find out what a zine was. Once I found out, I was thrilled.<\/p>\n

Joe, for me, was someone who saw my potential outside of stereotypes, and for that I am eternally grateful. And then he took the next risk, which was to publish it as a book. Having Yo <\/em> come out as zines<\/a> before it came out as a book was incredibly helpful for me in many, many ways. Between the performances and other promotion, I got a much better idea of how to move this book out into the world, which is something very different than making the book.<\/p>\n

What next? Will you be drawing more Yo Miss comics? Will you continue (or are you still) teaching at Wildcat, the second chance high school depicted in the book? Other big projects on the horizon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s up next? I always feel like the air space above Kennedy Airport around 7:00 in the evening \u2013 all those planes circling around waiting to land. My second book\u2014Lacunae: a Diary in Pictures\u2014<\/em>is just about ready to send out. It\u2019s another book with words and drawings, though it isn\u2019t in comics form.  (And unfortunately it\u2019s not up Microcosm\u2019s alley. All the drawings are color, and there are a lot of them.) The images are visceral, emotional and archetypal\u2014kind of a combination of Charlotte Salomon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jung. I hope to get the dummy of my third book, Noah and the Boa Dance Round the World<\/em> (a children\u2019s book), completed by the end of summer. I\u2019m not going to even mention the idea for the fourth book (but it is great!)  My biggest issue is time. I still work full-time at Wildcat \u2013 and love it, though (as I described in the book) I am almost always tired.<\/p>\n

There’s a tug of war right now about the future of public education in the US. If you were spirited away today to Washington to give policy recommendations to the president, what would they be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I was asked to give policymakers advice in terms of public education, I would say three things: 1) use standardized tests as one narrow measure of success instead of the defining concept, 2) do the math and see that standardized testing and technology are not cheaper solutions in terms of improving educational performance (and recognize that their connection to improving performance is also questionable.) and 3) take some of the money poured into standardized testing and technology and use it to reduce class size, increase noncore classes like art, music, dance, school sports, etc., and provide meaningful classroom support to improve classroom teaching.<\/p>\n

Because of what has happened with computers, the world is in a seismic shift in terms of using data to inform decisions. However, society is still in the early phases of this shift and too often data is seen as meaningful simply because it is data i.e. a score on a standardized test = what someone knows, whether the test is meaningful or not. Going along with that (and this is why I begin the first chapter with the quote attributed to Einstein) is the idea that things that aren\u2019t easily measured must not be valuable.<\/p>\n

If academic growth is the only value for education, society loses. <\/p>\n

\"yoReading Yo Miss, it was easy to get attached to a lot of the students. Can you share any “where are they now”s with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you probably know, the students in Yo, Miss<\/em> are fictionalized composites. I did that for confidentiality, but also I tried to be as true to who our students are as possible, and most characters had many models. We have had many students like Danny, the boy who kept calling me \u201cSnowflake.\u201d One student, Joe Garcia (who called Oedipus<\/em> \u201cstupid\u201d) is now a union electrician, making more money than me. I spotted another Danny model on the subway awhile back. There was a kid sitting across from me, deeply involved in a thick hardback book. It looked like one of our graduates, but the kid wouldn\u2019t look up\u2014he was so into the book\u2014so I couldn\u2019t be sure. Finally, when he reached his stop, our eyes met and it was indeed Keith Wooten\u2014former bane of every Wildcat staff member. Tyrell Bramble, whose poem Life and Times of Young Rellington<\/em> is recited by Will, was back visiting Wildcat a few weeks ago. He\u2019s now a nurse. However, I don\u2019t mean to give the impression that it\u2019s all positive. Another model for Will\u2014a student who we all loved who dropped out before graduation\u2014was killed by 23 bullets in a gang hit.<\/p>\n

Jessica De La Rosa, the model for Janis Diaz (the student who has osteogenisis imperfecta), graduated from John Jay College and on April 16th she and I are going to be at CWE, a branch of City College, talking about the book and the importance of challenging stereotypes. Jessica is an inspiration and a force of nature\u2014foster parenting three disabled children, competing in national rowing events, and promoting disability rights. She is also a dear friend. <\/p>\n

\n

This interview with Yo, Miss<\/a> author Lisa Wilde is part of a series of interviews with Microcosm authors. The last interview was with Katie Haegele<\/a> and the next one is with Andy Singer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}