A review by crothe77
Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice by Eddie Ahn

emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

 

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Advocate by Eddie Ahn is a graphic novel memoir from a nonprofit environmental and community activist. Eddie's family ran a liquor store in Texas after moving from South, instilling values of small kindnesses while also pressuring him to pursue the idea of children doing much better than their parents.

We start off learning about Eddie Ahn’s family history before and during the Korean War, including his grandfather studying in Seoul, far from his hometown of Kaesong. When the war broke out, this created a barrier to Ahn’s grandfather not only returning home but of ever seeing his family again.

We follow Eddie as he works at local schools to help empower his community in California to going to law school to working for and heading a nonprofit to working on a commission. He spends page time introducing us to individuals in his office, young and old, to help give faces to those who are also working towards the same goals of everyone having better lives as well as explaining how different programs work and highlighting positive experiences of community.

The use of color helps set the scene, with different eras represented by different colors: fwarmer hues often used for moments in childhood while the panels regarding Dr. Espanola Jackson, an activist Eddie worked with, are in purple, her favorite color. Eddie's time working in local schools are in green, the color of growth and nature, sharpening the duality of the work towards community and environmentalism being two sides of the same coin. 

The graphic novel doesn't shy away from the realities of working at a nonprofit, from pinching pennies to difficulties in explaining your career to family to cost vs time for every decision. It shows not only Eddie’s devotion to his cause but also to show anyone who is considering nonprofit work what they might expect, even if they are a lawyer and in charge. It's really important to peel back those curtains while also uplifting the people in our community who do the work to make it better. Eddie does a wonderful job of doing so, never once feeling sorry for himself and instead conveying that he is happy in his choices even if they don't mean a bank account flush with cash or a shiny new car.

Content warning for brief depictions of racism

I would recommend this to readers looking for memoirs in graphic novel form, aspiring environmental and community activists, and fans of showcasing what graphic novels can do.