Michael Tisserand, author of the National Book-nominated Krazy: George Herriman in Black and White, will discuss the New Orleans born illustrator, journalist and cartoonist at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 10, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

Krazy: George Herriman in Black and White is the story of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman. It explores the turbulent time and place from which he emerged—and the deep secret he explored through his art. A native of nineteenth-century New Orleans, George Herriman came of age as an illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist in Los Angeles and New York.

Appearing in the biggest newspapers of the early twentieth century—including those owned by William Randolph Hearst—Herriman’s Krazy Kat cartoons quickly propelled him to fame. Although fitfully popular with readers of the period, his work has been widely credited with elevating cartoons from daily amusements to anarchic art.

Herriman used his work to explore the human condition, creating a modernist fantasia that was inspired by the landscapes he discovered in his travels—from chaotic urban life to the Beckett-like desert vistas of the Southwest. Yet underlying his own life was a very private secret: known as "the Greek" for his swarthy complexion and curly hair, Herriman was actually African American, born to a prominent Creole family that hid its racial identity in the dangerous days of Reconstruction.

Drawing on original research into Herriman’s family history, interviews with surviving friends and family, and analysis of the artist’s work and surviving written records, Michael Tisserand pays homage to a visionary artist who helped shape modern culture.

Krazy has been named a finalist in both the National Book Critics Circle Awards for Biography and the Pen America/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography! Krazy also has been selected as a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2016 and was one of Vanity Fair‘s “Must-Read Books of the Holiday Season.”

Michael Tisserand’other books include The Kingdom of Zydeco and Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember. His work has appeared in the Oxford American, The Nation, The Progressive, and on WBEZ-FM Chicago. The former editor of New Orleans’ Gambit Weekly, Tisserand’s 11-part Katrina series “Submerged” was published in alternative newsweeklies across the country.

When not writing, Tisserand coaches scholastic chess and organizes the annual New Orleans Chess Fest, and is a founding member of the Laissez Boys Social Aide and Leisure Club, a Mardi Gras parading organization. Michael lives in New Orleans with his wife and children.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, manager of adult programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.