Guest post by Emma Parker, PositiveNegatives
At PositiveNegatives we make comics, animations and learning resources based on real life experiences of migration, displacement, conflict and more. Our mandate is to tell true stories, drawn from life. We work collaboratively, often to illustrate complex academic research and/or eyewitness testimonies.
Our online portfolio is varied, but at the heart of our collective work are the stories of refugees and migrants: from comics based on the testimonies of Syrians crossing the Mediterranean Sea, to animations portraying migrant families in Somaliland
As many of us are currently adapting to the challenges of remote learning, our educational team PosNeg Learning are continuing to develop open access learning resources. These are inspired by many of our comics and animations, and encourage students to tackle globally significant topics such as refugeedom, inequality, health and development. All of these can be downloaded and used for free, by educators anywhere in the world. They are designed for cross-curricular use, and are aimed at KS3-4.
Every Refugee Week we receive emails from organisations and individuals from all over the world asking whether PositiveNegatives’ comics and animations can be used at events. We almost always say a resounding ‘yes’ to these requests! So whether you’re organising an online exhibition, planning special classes about refugee experiences, or screening films with friends and colleagues, we’ve got you covered for Refugee Week 2020.
That’s because, wherever possible, we publish the majority of our work under a Creative Commons license. When our stories are distributed as Creative Commons they can be used for any not-for-profit purpose as long as PositiveNegatives and the artist/s are attributed, and they aren’t remixed or edited.
Creative Commons is part of a progressive movement of copyright reforms which help legally share knowledge and creativity, building a more equitable and accessible world.
If you use one of PosNeg’s stories, or teach a class with our resources, please tag us on twitter, facebook or instagram and let us know your experiences. We love seeing our work out in the world.
Our portfolio includes a wide range of graphic narratives including:
- A Perilous Journey, a trilogy of three comics based on the experiences of Syrian refugees travelling to Europe
- Dear Habib, an animation about being an unaccompanied child refugee in Britain
- Migrants on the Margins, a comics series about migration from rural to urban settings in four regions across the global south.
- Ola, a webcomic about having irregular immigration status in the UK
- North Star Fading, a zoom animation inspired by the testimonies of 4 Eritrean refugees
- Life on the Move, award-winning stop-motion animation about migration in the Horn of Africa
Many of these have been used and seen by communities across the globe, from exhibitions at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo to screening at the ‘Other’ People’s Film Festival in Durban, South Africa.
For the full range of our comics, animations and learning resources please visit: https://positivenegatives.org/
If you’d like to use any of PositiveNegatives’ work at your own Refugee Week event please get in touch with emily@positivenegatives.org
