The following piece was commissioned as part of the Illustrated PEN‘s State of Emergency feature, intended to bring forward the voices and stories of communities whose concerns and lives may be most at risk under the new administration. Our hope is that the stories created for this series will help empower and inspire people to stand up and speak out and to begin to repair what’s been so thoroughly broken.

Whit Taylor is a cartoonist from New Jersey. She received a Glyph Award and two nominations for her autobiographical comics Watermelon (2012) and Boxes (2014), as well as an Ignatz nomination for her miniseries Madtown High (2013). Recent works include The Anthropologists (Sparkplug Books), which was selected as a Notable Comic for Best American Comics 2015 and SubCultures: A Comics Anthology (editor, Ninth Art Press).