The Bay Area resident, inspired by how comics connected with her community college students, developed "(H)afrocentric" to address structural and economic racism in a funny and accessible way.
Smith, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, first caught the academia bug as a student and college basketball player at the University of California (U.C.), Riverside. She took a class with ethnic studies scholar Dylan Rodriguez that she says influenced her understanding on social justice and education.
Smith began working on "(H)afrocentric" in 2010. She created the comic as a form of catharsis for the pressures of her academic career, which she ultimately left before getting to use the project in her own classrooms. "It was very difficult to make a living as an adjunct professor, and I'll just leave it at that," she says about the end of her professorial career.
Photo: Provided to Colorlines by Artist "(H)afrocentric #15." All "(H)afrocentric" images © 2017 Juliana "Jewels" Smith.
Smith first developed "(H)afrocentric" as a comic book series with illustrator Ronald R. Nelson and colorist Mike Hampton. The team pivoted to making standalone comic strips, which Smith consistently releases on Instagram and Hafrocentric.com, in 2016. The smaller format allows her to release the work more consistently.
Smith has spoken about using comics to address racial justice at New York Comic Con and the Baltimore Book Festival. The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention recognized Smith with its Glyphy Award for Best Writer in 2016. She is the first woman to win that award since the convention launched in 2002.