A graphic novelist and filmmaker, Barrack Zailaa Rima was born in 1972 in Tripoli, Lebanon, and has lived in Brussels, Belgium for more than thirty years. While she explored a wide variety of media and art forms in her early career, Barrack now devotes herself to comic books. A former member of the Beirut-based Samandal collective, she is the author of several graphic novels, editorial cartoons, and compelling works of comics journalism including Le conteur du Caire, Beirut, and Sociologia. Her latest graphic novel, Dans le taxi, published by Alifbata Editions, received the Mahmoud Kahil Award for the best graphic novel from the MENA region (Lebanon, 2022) and the Grenades Literary Prize (Belgium, 2022).

On September 17, 2024, Invisible Publishing will release Barrack Zailaa Rima’s graphic three-volume trilogy, Beirut, available in English for the first time in Carla Calargé and Alexandra Gueydan-Turek’s translation. Each volume retraces a visit Rima made to the Lebanese capital while also bearing witness to events unfolding in Beirut.

Barrack will give a presentation in which she will discuss her own artistic practice in relation to other graphic novelists. She will reflect on important moments in the history of the art form as well as trends that have informed her own artistic expression. She will also provide an overview of contemporary Arab comic and graphic novel production with a particular focus on Lebanon.

Graphic Novel Workshop
Following this presentation, Barrack Zailaa Rima will conduct a series of creative practical exercises on constructing a narrative sequence, which will allow you to become familiar with the language of graphic novels. No prior technical skills are required.

Workshop is open to the public and does note require any previous experience.

Spots are limited! Please register in advance. 

This workshop is offered in partnership with The Modern Languages and Literatures Department and the Lehigh Pride Center.