Maja Milkowska-Shibata will share from her graphic memoir weaving together themes of growing up with a disability, navigating a dysfunctional home, and building a career within the healthcare field. The memoir follows her experience as a patient undergoing forearm-lengthening surgeries due to an infection in infancy, alongside the highs and lows of her professional journey in health sciences, which took her from Poland to the Netherlands, across South Asia, and eventually to the United States. Through this work, she examines the lasting effects of medical trauma, the intergenerational impact of addiction, and the complexities of navigating the healthcare system.
The genre of graphic medicine blends the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare, merging the principles of narrative medicine with visual storytelling. Moved by the power of visual storytelling to capture the complexities of personal experience, Maja strives for an intimate and authentic account of her journey. Her graphic memoir integrates written narrative with visual storytelling, including sequential art, illustrations, photographs, and archival documents, all presented in her own handwriting.
The art talk will be followed by a short Q&A and reception.
BIOGRAPHY
Maja Milkowska-Shibata (Illinois) was born and raised in Poland. She is a public health professional and medical interpreter by training, using writing and art to share stories and perspectives. Over the past few years, she began seeking a deeper connection to humanity in her work, which led her to discover the field of graphic medicine, which uses comics to discuss health-related topics. Her comics have been featured in Sequential Artists Workshop Anthologies (2023, 2024), as well as in the journals The Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (2023), Intima (2024), and Tendon (2025).
Maja also has a workshop, "Drawing from Experience: An Introduction to Graphic Medicine and Creating Autobiographical Comics" on Saturday, September 13th, 1pm - 4pm. Register at surelsplace.ludus.com.
To see more events visit surelsplace.org
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