Roughly two and a half years ago I took a step back from my community-engaged art practice to submerge myself in a very tender and personal project.
It has been quite a long and evolving process of reflection, growth, and learning and I am finally able to say that the graphic memoir “Hanabata Days” is now complete. With the support of many generous individuals, the book is NOW AVAILABLE for purchase via online booksellers and special ordered at local bookstores.
SUMMARY:
Hanabata Days is a graphic memoir that explores the unexpected reunion of a father and son, 47 years after separation. The diasporic story unfolds visually over the span of 60+ years navigating shifting geographic and cultural dissonance, from pre-tourism Hawai’i to present day Middle America. Its central characters’ hidden pasts are made visible to one another after searching for answers compelled by hope, premonition, the stars, currents, and the introduction of ancestral coordinates unlocked via shared genetic data.
How do two familial strangers proceed forward and make meaning together? What possible pasts can be known and never known? What secrets should remain buried? And is their path to redemption intricately dependent on one another? Hanabata Days connects two lives impacted by different forms of colonization, silence, and ambiguous longing. Each seeking to reckon with their complex pasts towards reclamation.
Pages: 160 full color
Dimensions: 6.625×10.25 inches,
Paperback: Perfect Bound
Year: 2022
ISBN978-0-578-29098-0
Copyright © Michael Hoyt, 2022 – All rights reserved.