No Small Plans
graphic novel
No Small Plans is a full-color graphic novel that follows the neighborhood adventures of teens in Chicago’s past, present, and future as they wrestle with what it will take to design the city they want, need, and deserve.
Created by Gabrielle Lyon, Devin Mawdsley, Kayce Bayer, Chris Lin, and Deon Reed. The book was commissioned by the Chicago Architecture Foundation for use in their Education Programs and in partnership with Chicago Public Schools. 5,000 copies were printed and distributed to students and educators across Chicago and for circulation in Chicago Public Libraries. CAF also developed curriculum and resources for educators and held educator workshops to make the novel and tools ready to use in the classroom.
My role in the project: Writing, Research, Color, Image Editing as well as Workflow Management for the creative team. I also contributed to the robust annotated chapter guides in the reader’s toolkit, linking the image and story details to real places, people, issues, history and organizing in Chicago neighborhoods.
Below are some sample pages from the 144-page graphic novel.
synopsis
No Small Plans is organized into three chapters illustrating Chicago in 1928, 2017 and 2211. In between each chapter, an “interlude” brings Daniel Burnham, Wacker’s Manual and the art and science of urban planning to life. Each chapter concludes with a neighborhood map showing where the action takes place.
launch & events
The team participated in a teen launch (CAF gave away a batch of books to teens directly) at the Weinberg Gallery as part of the exhibition Bold Disobedience on July 20, 2017, and then had our official release party / book-signing for Kickstarter backers and other supporters on July 27th. We signed over 200 copies!
We tabled at Chicago Book Expo (doing a Q&A panel), C2E2, and CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo).
what people are saying
“Whether Chicago will make it to the 23rd century is an unanswerable question, but No Small Plans reminds us that the city is alive and mutable when we respect our own power to transform it.”
— Tanner Howard, The Chicago Architecture Foundation creates a graphic novel for the city’s future, Chicago Reader, July 19, 2017
“No Small Plans is filled with exuberant linework and florid colors, and characters flit between light and shadow, as if they were part of the city itself.”
— Anjulie Rao, No Small Plans Brings Chicago’s Past, Present, and Possible Future to Life, Chicago Magazine, March 30, 2017
“The graphic-novel format tells teens, This is for you, and the content takes the message a step further: the city is for you.”
— The New Yorker: Alexandra Lange, A Graphic Novel to Transform Teens into City Planners, The New Yorker, August 19, 2017
“In the book, the city is not idealized and neither is Burnham. The book repeats the criticism that Burnham’s plan paid little attention to housing or the lives of working people. Burnham responds: “Ultimately, the decisions were not mine alone. Who should decide, do you think? ... What is it that makes a city livable? What is a city for everyone?”
The book’s fundamental strength is that it focuses on provoking such questions, not dictating answers.”
Chicago Tribune: Blair Kamin, Graphic novel seeks to show CPS students the importance of urban planning
City Lab article: “Drawing Up an Urban Planning Manual for Chicago Teens”http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2017/04/chicago-architecture-foundation-no-small-plans-graphic-novel-teens/521802/
Columbia Chronicle article: “Graphic novel to open up imagination about civic, urban engagement”
http://www.columbiachronicle.com/arts_and_culture/article_a110407a-26de-11e7-88b7-8355af057f52.html
Gabrielle Lyon, was on The Morning Shift and Chicago Tonight to talk about the project.
NEXT CITY shared an excerpt of Chapter 2 titled A Teenage Throwdown Against Displacement, the Graphic Novel Version.
No Small Plans in the world
The best part of this project is seeing how young people take the stories and lessons out into the world to observe and question. No Small Plans inspired moves (and supported work already underway!) to reflect and take action in communities,
Below are a few documents from a class at Washington High School in the Southeast side as they practice being “an East Side Urban Planner.”
