Buffalo Sonnet is a groundbreaking digital comic book written and illustrated by Kamau Ware, commissioned by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. This comic is steeped in history and prayer in the form of a 14-line sonnet for children of the African Diaspora displaced by violence.

Kamau Ware’s black and white approach to the visuals lends the story a documentary-style feel that makes the comic come off as a work of preservation. And yet, it’s whimsical enough, magical even, to capture a sense of wonder that highlights the things that were born, nurtured, and exalted in San Juan Hill. 

Comics Beat (Ricardo Serrano Denis) 

Buffalo Sonnet takes the formless structure of a poem. Characters ebb from an African medicine woman named Sage who offers a prayer in the form of a sonnet for generational healing to children of the African Diaspora. The protagonist Paint brushes against hard and soft lines on an errand through San Juan Hill to pick up beets in an effort to finance his dream of becoming a pianist such as the famed Eubie Blake and the venerable James Reese Europe. In essence, San Juan Hill is a real place that has inspired the poem received by Sage for children of the African Diaspora who find themselves displaced or facing the machine of displacement. The Buffalo Sonnet is an invitation to consider healing for a people migrating by force.

There are select artworks available from this project.