Still I Rise
Roland Laird '82, Author/ Entrepreneur
Roland Laird is a critically acclaimed author with a passion for his culture and his community. In October 2008, at the height of the U.S. financial crisis, Roland left his position as a VP of Technology at a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Global Fortune 100 company to grow his near 20-year-old side business Posro Media into the country's leading convergent entertainment company specializing in African American culture.
In the early 1990s Posro was one of the first black-owned independent comic book companies publishing the hip hop-infused series MC Squared. Today the company produces projects in a variety of formats, including comics, books, video, and film. Posro projects' positive imagery is designed to stand in sharp counterpoint to the mass media's often unrealistic and misleading portraits of the African American community. The company's fresh, and historically accurate perspective on topics ranging from slavery, to sports, politics, Hip Hop and superheroes have garnered praise from many national media including The New York Times, The Source, Entertainment Weekly, NBC's The Today Show, and MTV.
Roland co-authored with his wife Taneshia Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans, a critically acclaimed work with an impressive scope: the entire history of Black America, told in an accessible 216 page graphic-novel form. Originally published in 1997, it was recently updated and now extends from the arrival of the first Africans in 1619 right through to Senator Barack Obama’s groundbreaking presidential campaign. Compared by many to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Still I Rise is a breathtaking achievement that celebrates the collective African-American memory, imagination, and spirit and the book has been embraced by colleges and schools throughout the country.
Website: http://www.posro.com/about/