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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: US - Indigenous Lesbian Comic
HEADLINE: Native American Artist Tells Tale of Love, Identity
TEASER: Carmen Selam's comic 'Rezbians' focuses on the relationship between two young Indigenous women
PUBLISHED AT: 04/03/2024 AT 10AM
BYLINE: Gustavo Martínez Contreras
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Albuquerque, New Mexico
VIDEOGRAPHER: Gustavo Martínez Contreras
VIDEO EDITOR:
ASSIGNING EDITOR: Stearns
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S):
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 2:18
VID APPROVED BY: sb
TYPE: TVR
EDITOR NOTES: This script was rewritten following a second interview with the artist to correct deficient audio. Once approved, it should replace the earlier version in HFR.))
((INTRO))
An Indigenous graphic artist in the Southwest U.S. state of New Mexico is using a comic book to tell a story about same-sex love and identity on a Native American reservation. Gustavo Martínez Contreras has our story from Albuquerque.
((NARRATOR))
Indigenous artist Carmen Selam says her comic book “Rezbians” is a personal story about love and identity. The title is a word that has been used to describe lesbians on Native American reservations.
((Carmen Selam, Artist))
“It’s kind of a reclaiming of that term. It’s definitely something that is used within the communities that I’ve heard. So I just kind of wanted to make it a positive thing and also something that we use within our own space, Rezbians. And so, "Rezbians" is very much my own take on those relationships and something that I wanted to show, to just throw into the world.”
((NARRATOR))
Selam, who is Yakama and Comanche, hopes her story strengthens representations of same-sex love among Indigenous communities, which she says was missing in the media she grew up with.
((Carmen Selam, Artist))
“Rezbians" is something I really wanted to be accessible to my own youth here as well as other youth on other reservations, urban and rez Natives alike. So I think "Rezbians" for me is just sort of creating that representation that I never got to see.”
((NARRATOR))
The book came from Selam’s artist residency at Risolana, a community printing studio in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Risolana co-founder Michael Lorenzo López says the organization aims to help artists expand their creativity.
((Michael Lorenzo López, Risolana Co-founder))
“And I see what Carmen made as a really good foundation for Carmen, if she wanted, to create a larger book that was more in depth or even to create a movie. I don’t know what that would look like, but I think that it’s also thinking about narrative building, and people having the opportunity to see their narrative in their hands is super powerful.”
((NARRATOR))
Tanya Tyler is a Diné native who came to the book launch to support the storytelling of Native American women.
((Tanya Tyler, Attended 'Rezbians' Launch))
“Not only because it’s Native American art but also because it represents two-spirit experience, somebody from the LGBTQ realm.”
((NARRATOR))
Selam says she is working to inspire people from other marginalized groups to understand their histories, to tell their own stories and to reclaim their identities.
((Gustavo Martínez Contreras, VOA News, Albuquerque, New Mexico))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
