The Twisted Garden Project 

The Twisted Garden Project is a comics anthology created by seven Black high school students from New Orleans. Through illustrated narratives, the young creators share their experiences within the city's all-charter public school system.

Developed through a 12-week youth participatory action research process in spring 2023, the comics explore themes including the school-to-prison pipeline, institutional responses to grief, and the suppression of creativity. Stories like "Sentenced to School" and "The Art of Life" use fiction, allegory, and visual metaphor to examine educational experiences often absent from policy discussions.

The collective title reflects both the challenging conditions students navigate and their persistence in learning and creating despite those obstacles. The project demonstrates how comics can function as both creative expression and research methodology, allowing young people to analyze and share their educational experiences on their own terms.

Twisted Garden emerged from collaborative workshops where students built community, engaged in political education, and developed their narratives together. The final anthology represents their collective voice and vision for what education could become.

Twisted Garden currently only exists as a small-batch print project. Please contact us directly to purchase a copy. Free copies are available for use in education and social justice spaces.

We are seeking a publisher to help expand our reach!