2:00 - 3:30
Laura Gao, San Francisco author and illustrator, shares her debut graphic memoir, Messy Roots, about her coming of age as a queer, Chinese American immigrant. An audience Q&A, special live reading, and book signing will follow.
Laura Gao is a queer artist, author, bread lover, and continental drifter. Originally from Wuhan, China, Gao immigrated to Texas where she first began doodling on Pokemon cards and her art career has since blossomed to be featured on NPR, the New York Times, the Museum of Chinese in American, and most notably, their parents’ fridge. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Gao worked as a Product Manager in San Francisco until April 2020, when in response to anti-Asian racism and rampant misinformation about their hometown, they published a webcomic, "The Wuhan I Know", on Twitter where it went viral. The comic inspired their bestselling debut graphic memoir, Messy Roots, which was published in March 2022 with HarperCollins and has since garnered three starred reviews, been featured in NPR and the New York Times, and is shortlisted for the Harvey Awards, Indies Next List, Indies Introduce List, and the Texas Maverick List. Besides drawing and fending off early-onset back pain, Gao enjoys biking through Ghibli-esque worlds and binging SNL.
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AANHPI Interest
Weaving Stories: Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Interest
Connect with AANHPI heritage with programs and workshops, book recommendations and more.
Weaving Stories is the Library's celebration of the many diverse histories and cultures from Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities.
LGBTQIA+ Interest
Gather, share knowledge and celebrate our unique identities at the queerest library ever.
For more resources, the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center is the gateway to the Library’s broader collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.
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