By Tasslyn Magnusson
 | Here's what I wanted to talk about in a blog post about MARCH – BOOKS 1-3. I wanted to talk about how finding graphic novels has been a source of wonder and joy to me. I wasn't a comic book girl. I didn't really like cartoons growing up - too many people teased me, saying I looked like Velma. The first – and only – graphic novel I read before starting my MFA at Hamline was MAUS. |
| I wanted to talk about MAUS and MARCH as histories. These two books are first and foremost stories of our past that grip me like no other histories have. Before diving into creative writing, I trained as an historian. MARCH and MAUS are the way I wanted to see history written – ways of discussing the past that connect to the present, but even more, show (not tell) about values of individuals working to fight for our shared society. |  |
| But given this past weekend and the Executive Order and ensuing chaos caused I want to talk to all of us about what MARCH said to me about resistance and the strength and pure courage of resistance. And the never ceasing quest for not just equality but recognition of human dignity and the right to exist. |  |
| I needed to read MARCH right now. MARCH fills me with the faith and determination. I learned that my values and actions serve as the core that guide my actions – and my ability to create change. Necessary change. And good trouble, as John Lewis tells us. His story, in the three books of MARCH teaches me that. Did you watch him and other Congresspeople this past summer during their sit-in at the House of Representatives? The same determination and strength it took to begin that walk across the bridge in Selma is still needed today – by him and by us. |   |
 | Lewis and Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell don’t shy away from the struggle and violence and sacrifice by civil rights leaders. The message I needed to hear is best described by a panel near the end of BOOK 3 where Lewis discovers that Martin Luther King is not coming and wants them to delay the march by a day. The picture is of just feet. And the text reads: “But the people were HERE, and they were READY. There was no way to turn them back now,” (193). |
Writers. We must write. We must find the strength and determination. The people are here. You can’t turn them back. They are ready – someone is out there and they need the story that you are writing.