NAAFA Presents Fat Community Storytime Halloween Edition with Bats Langley
Monday, October 28, 2024
5pm PT / 6pm MT / 7pm CT / 8pm ET
Duration: 60 minutes
[Image Description: On a black background is a picture of Bats Langley holding one of his original GUS paintings, the cover of his book Groggle's Monster Halloween, an illustration of a book, and the NAAFA logo, along with the following text: "NAAFA Presents Fat Community Storytime (for Grown-ups!) Spotlighting children's books authors and illustrators. Free for fat community and fat-positive friends. Details and registration at naafa.org/events. Interpreting by Pro Bono ASL. Hosted by Tigress Osborn (she/her). Oct 28, 5pm Pacific. Featuring illustrator Bats Langley (he/him).]
Fat Community Storytime is NAAFA’s new virtual event spotlighting fat authors and illustrators who create storybooks for kids of all ages. We know grown-ups like storytime, too, so we’re inviting these fat-tastic creators to read their books and then tell us more about themselves, their other projects, and their lives as fat people. Join us for our second edition of #FatCommunityStorytime with popular illustrator Bats Langley (he/him). Many of you already know Bats as the artist who has created our #FatLiberationMonth artwork for the last three years, but did you know that kids all over the world know Bats’ little monster friend Groggle? The School Library Journal says this about Groggle’s Monster Halloween: “More fun than fright, this story’s lively rhyming text and bold illustrations make it a good choice to read aloud to a group.” We couldn’t agree more! Come have some Halloween fun with Bats and NAAFA friends! Hosted by Tigress Osborn (she/her) with interpreting by Pro Bono ASL.
NAAFA virtual events are for fat people and fat-positive friends of all sizes. Our virtual events are offered free of charge thanks to the generosity of our community of NAAFA donors. To support this work and other NAAFA programming, make a donation today at naafa.org/give.
This event is presented via Zoom, in English, and with English auto-captions by Otter.ai. ASL Interpreting by Pro Bono ASL (@probonoasl).
The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is a 501(c)3 charitable organization with a mission to change perceptions of fat and to end size discrimination through advocacy, education, and support. Learn more at naafa.org.
Image Description (provided by guest): Bats Langley holding one of his original GUS paintings.
GUEST BIO:
Bats Langley is a painter, sculptor, writer, illustrator, toy designer, and a creator of many things. Most recently, Mr. Langley illustrated the nonfiction biography of Jackie Kennedy titled “Jackie and the Books She Loved”, distributed by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Langley is a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) grad. He is a regular contributor to Spider, Ladybug, Cricket, and Scholastic magazines and has been a frequently featured cover artist.
Bats is the creator of GUS, and his art has been shown in galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Hartford, Providence, Hangzhou China, and at The New Britain Museum of American Art and the United States Capitol building. Mr. Langley's work was exhibited at the AFA Gallery in NYC and in Vegas for many years and shown alongside some of his idols: Maurice Sendak, Tim Burton, Charles Adams, Dr. Seuss and Charles Schultz. Mr. Langley is the illustrator of the picture book “Groggle's Monster Valentine” and it’s sequel, “Groggle’s Monster Halloween”, on Sky Pony Press/Simon & Schuster, and was the author/illustrator of “Alice’s Adventures in #Wonderland”. Bats also did the cover art for Scary Stories to Tell on The Pod, a podcast hosted by head Saturday Night Live writer Anna Drezen and the Miracle Workers and Best Foot Forward writer Andrew Farmer. This cover art was shown on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Today, Mr. Langley lives in a cozy, but spectacular apartment in the shadow of the Chelsea Hotel on the island of Manhattan, with his husband, Nicholas, and their two plants, Lily and Idina. Mr. Langley and Nicholas were married, surrounded by loved ones, in a dear friend’s haunted castle in the south of France.
In his free time, you will find Mr. Langley cooking, reading, being a LGBTQ and body celebration activist, and watching owls swoop in his backyard, which live in sanctuary on a neighbor's roof. He enjoys ghost stories, biology, medical curiosities, queer zines, modern painting, museum visits, oddities, theater, fashion, old movies and book collecting.
Follow Bats on Twitter and Facebook @batslangley and on Instagram @studiobatslangley
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