Kristie Song, KQED (NPR):
When to Pick a Pomegranate is the culmination of the ways Abedifard’s path has diverged and reconverged in her love of cartoons, comics and her desire to connect with her heritage. There are several references to Persian art, history and language, including in the naming of the comics. “Every title, I have it in Farsi as well, because there’s a lot of meaning in the Farsi that the English doesn’t have,” says Abedifard. “For example, this word خراب (“rotten”) is like a fruit went bad, right? But also, it means something is broken or wrong.”
Beyond its focus on change and the anxieties around it, When to Pick a Pomegranate challenges readers to question: How do we heal from events that threaten to stunt us? How can we rediscover pleasure, joy and rest in ourselves and our communities? Dedicated to “saplings plucked too early,” the collection is a visually and emotionally complex venture into a contemporary kind of myth-making, one in which historical images are supplanted by daring, new roots.
Find the full feature on KQED’s website here!
