Sarah Enkvetchakul
saraheiko.comSarah Enkvetchakul (they/she), professionally known as Sarah Eiko, is a San Francisco based designer and graduate of the University of San Francisco. She specializes in print media and illustration. Her work often explores identity and experience, often centering on her queer identity, religious upbringing and trauma, and other experiences that have deeply impacted her. She hopes to provide a deeper understanding of herself and others’ experiences through telling stories. Stories have a special way of getting people to relate and understand, and she thinks that’s a special kind of magic.
The Magic In Us
The Magic In Us is a comics anthology that explores how having intersectional identities affects one’s experiences through the lens of magical realism. Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberly Krenshaw to describe the way different aspects of one’s identity (race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, etc) overlap and intertwine with each other to uniquely affect one’s experience. After learning the term in 6th grade, I could feel how intersectionality affected my life, which gave me a deeper understanding into how it could affect others as well. I want to pass on that understanding to others through these comics. By giving a look into the issues the people I interviewed faced, I hope that the audience can leave with a greater understanding of how intersectional identities truly affect others. The other goal of these comics is to show the resiliency of those with intersectional identities and to celebrate the breadth of diversity in the world. These comics serve as a reminder that the trauma marginalized communities face can’t destroy the magic in us.
For this project, I interviewed 4 people about their unique experiences living as someone with multiple marginalized identities. Then, I applied some fictionalized magical element to their story, creating a unique lens for their story to be viewed. Throughout the process, I collaborated with the people I interviewed to make sure that they identified with the way I was telling their story and the element of magical realism present. Finally, their stories were compiled and printed into the physical anthology. While this chapter of the anthology is complete, I hope to add more stories to this collection in the future to create a full length novel.