'Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence'

Joel Christian Gill, associate professor at MassArt and author and illustrator of the graphic novel "Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence," calls his graphic novel "a love letter for kids who were like me growing up." The book is an homage to his own journey to wholeness as a Black man, through a childhood and adolescence full of trauma and violence. He talked with us about his difficult childhood, why he felt inspired to tell his story through a graphic novel, the lessons he learned on his journey to adulthood and what he would tell his childhood self and others growing up in similar situations.