Drawing Against Oblivion
Graphic journalism, human rights, and the struggle to preserve memory in a world of conflict
In recent years, continuing my work of storytelling, bearing witness, and defending human rights through drawing has become increasingly difficult. Drawing, which has always been for me an act of presence, of taking a stand, and of civil resistance, confronts me every day with a growing sense of powerlessness in the face of conflicts that seem to have no end and the steady normalization of violence.
After years of war in the Gaza Strip, as Ukraine continues to be devastated by Russia’s invasion and the conflict between Israel and Iran has opened yet another front of instability in the Middle East, everything feels more opaque, more complex, almost unspeakable. Images flow relentlessly before our eyes, yet the language of human rights seems to have been worn away. The words and principles meant to defend human dignity appear to lose their force precisely when they are needed most. Human rights are continuously questioned, suspended, or denied, while suffering risks becoming background noise to which the world gradually grows accustomed.
In this context, drawing is no longer only a tool of denunciation. It is a fragile, necessary, and stubborn act. To keep drawing means resisting oblivion, trying to preserve a space for humanity when everything seems to push toward indifference. It is a small gesture, yet one filled with responsibility: to remain, to observe, to bear witness, and not to look away, even when it seems that the world already has.
Here you will find the fifteen most-read articles from my website, Channeldraw, which over the years has grown into an independent platform dedicated to graphic journalism, human rights, and contemporary memory. It is a space built day by day, where drawing is not merely a visual language but a tool for research, documentation, and storytelling.
Today, Channeldraw is a constantly evolving archive of portraits, drawn reportage, interviews, essays, and collaborative projects created with journalists, researchers, activists, and international organizations. Through this work, I try to restore complexity to current events, give a face to the people caught in conflict, tell the stories that too often remain at the margins of mainstream media, and build a visual memory of our time.
I still believe that drawing can be an act of civic responsibility. It cannot change the world on its own, but it can help ensure that people, injustices, and lives are not forgotten.
Channeldraw is an independent and free project
If you appreciate this work and would like to support the maintenance of the website, you can subscribe through Substack or Patreon.
Even a small contribution helps sustain independent information, research, and visual storytelling.
1 Savanna Batten: From an ICE Protest to One of the Most Controversial Federal Trials in Recent U.S. History
How an anti-ICE protest became a landmark federal conspiracy case
The arrest of Savanna Batten became one of the most closely watched cases arising from recent protests against U.S. immigration enforcement. Her case stems from the events of July 4, 2025, outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where a demonstration escalated after a local police officer was shot in the neck.
Batten was arrested along with several other activists in the days following the protest. Federal prosecutors alleged that the group had planned a coordinated attack on the detention facility, using fireworks, vandalism, and other tactics to disrupt federal officers. The government described the prosecution as a major domestic terrorism case, while the defense argued that the demonstration was a political protest against U.S. immigration policies and that the shooting was the independent act of a single participant, not the result of a collective plan. Continue
2 Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Killed During ICE Operation in Houston: Family Demands Truth and Justice
The death of a longtime Houston resident during an ICE operation sparks calls for an independent investigation and renewed scrutiny of immigration enforcement practices.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed in Houston during an immigration enforcement operation carried out by ICE, the U.S. federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws. His death has sparked renewed debate over the methods used in immigration operations across the United States and intensified calls for transparency and accountability.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during the operation Lorenzo ignored officers’ commands and attempted to ram an agent with his vehicle. The incident allegedly led an ICE officer to open fire, killing him. Continue
3 Ilhan Sami Çomak: Freedom After Thirty Years of Poetry in Prison
A poet’s life written in confinement, and the long struggle for freedom through language
Ilhan Sami Çomak is one of the most emblematic contemporary poets shaped by political imprisonment. Arrested in 1994 while studying geography at Istanbul University, he was sentenced to life in prison on charges of belonging to an illegal organization. From that moment on, he spent more than thirty years behind bars.
His story is not only judicial, but deeply literary. During his incarceration, Çomak continued to write poetry, building a substantial body of work that gained international recognition. His texts circulated through translations, publications, and networks of cultural solidarity, establishing him as a central figure in contemporary Kurdish poetry.
Over the years, he became one of the longest-imprisoned political prisoners in Turkey. Despite numerous appeals and repeated international concerns questioning the fairness of his trial, his release was postponed multiple times.
His writing, produced entirely under conditions of confinement, engages with memory, landscape, loss, and the persistence of language. Poetry becomes not only a form of expression, but a mental space of continuity and resistance.
On November 26, 2024, after 30 years, 3 months, and 6 days of imprisonment, İlhan Sami Çomak was finally released. Continue
4 The New Frontier of Visual Journalism
Illustration, design, and investigative reporting in the project that brought The New Yorker into the age of interactive documentary
What does it mean to tell a story whose consequences are still unfolding? How can an investigative report become a narrative experience that fully engages readers without compromising journalistic rigor? These are the questions at the heart of the event hosted by Salotto on June 22, dedicated to Cleared by Fire, The New Yorker’s interactive documentary that received a Peabody Award, one of the most prestigious honors in journalism and storytelling.
The conversation brings together four of the key figures behind the project: Sam Wolson, Visual Features Editor at The New Yorker; Aviva Michaelov, Digital Design Director; Nicholas Konrad, Art Director; and Emiliano Ponzi, one of Italy’s most internationally acclaimed illustrators. Together they will discuss not only how such an investigation is produced, but also how journalism, illustration, animation, cartography, interaction design, and web development can merge into an entirely new form of visual storytelling. Continue
5 The Unpublished Truth: Joe Sacco, Muzaffarnagar, and the Politics of Editorial Silence
This page is available in English (UK), Italian
How Penguin Random House India’s decision to withdraw distribution of Joe Sacco’s graphic reportage on the Muzaffarnagar riots has reignited debates on publishing freedom, editorial pressure, and preemptive censorship in contemporary India
The decision by Penguin Random House India to withdraw the distribution of The Once and Future Riot, Joe Sacco’s new book on the 2013 sectarian violence in Muzaffarnagar, represents one of the most significant episodes in the recent debate over publishing freedom in India.
Sacco is no ordinary author. Widely regarded as the world’s leading practitioner of graphic journalism, he has built his reputation by documenting conflicts and human rights abuses in Palestine, Bosnia, Iraq, and Gaza through a narrative form that combines investigative reporting and comics. His works have become essential references for generations of journalists, illustrators, and scholars of visual communication. Continue
Channeldraw is an independent and free project
If you appreciate this work and would like to support the maintenance of the website, you can subscribe through Substack or Patreon.
Even a small contribution helps sustain independent information, research, and visual storytelling.
6 Portraits for the Palestinian Students from Ramallah
Four portraits created as a gesture of welcome for the artists participating in the Young Artists from an Ancient Land residency in Bologna
I have prepared four portraits of the Palestinian students participating in the international project Young Artists from an Ancient Land.
The portraits were created as a gesture of welcome and will be given to the artists during their residency in Bologna, which will take place from June 4 to June 28 and will culminate in a final exhibition scheduled for June 26 at the Academy of Fine Arts.
The project is promoted by the Visual Arts Forum of Ramallah, the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, and Studio Antonello Ghezzi, with the support of Legacoop Bologna, Camst, and Coop Alleanza 3.0, together with Camplus and Scuderie Future Food Living Lab, and in collaboration with the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna and Parsec.
The initiative aims to highlight the work of four young Palestinian women artists and to offer them a period of artistic and educational residency in Bologna. During this time, the artists will work in the spaces of Studio Antonello Ghezzi, take part in meetings and educational sessions with teachers and curators, and develop new works in dialogue with the cultural context of the city. Continue
7 The ethics of irony — Marjane Satrapi, comics as freedom and resistance
This page is available in English (UK), Italian, French
The fragile strength of telling the world through lived experience
On Thursday morning I received the news of Marjane Satrapi’s death. It came suddenly, violently. Since then, I have kept returning in my mind to Ravenna, to 2003, to when Elettra Stamboulis and I curated what would remain the only major exhibition in the world to feature the original drawings of Persepolis.
At the time, almost no one in Italy knew who Marjane was. Many asked us why we would dedicate an exhibition to an unknown Iranian author. Some even said she could not draw. But we had understood that something important was happening. In those pages there was a new voice—capable of telling the story of revolution, war, and exile with a force I had never seen in contemporary comics. Continue
8 The internet as a battlefield: the legacy of Carola Frediani
One of the most influential Italian journalists in the field of cybersecurity and digital rights, she helped make visible the invisible infrastructures of power that shape our online world.
Carola Frediani, journalist and author, one of the most authoritative voices in Italy in the field of cybersecurity and digital rights, died today, June 3, 2026, at the age of 51, after a long illness. The news was announced through her newsletter Guerre di Rete, a project she founded and which has become one of the most important references in Italy for the analysis of cyberwarfare, disinformation, and digital surveillance. Continue
9 Bella Demhat: the risk of a deportation that could cost her life
Kurdish trans activist faces removal from Sweden after asylum rejection, raising urgent concerns over safety and human rights protections in Turkey.
Bella Demhat is a Kurdish transgender activist who has been living in Sweden for nine years, where she sought international protection in order to rebuild her life after fleeing Turkey. Today, however, she finds herself at the centre of a case that raises serious questions about Europe’s asylum system and the protection of LGBTQIA+ people escaping persecution.
On March 19, the UN Human Rights Committee rejected her appeal against Sweden’s decision to deny her asylum. This ruling paves the way for a potential deportation, despite well-documented evidence of the extreme risks she would face in her country of origin. Continue
10 Alaa Faraj: Between the Sea and the Courtroom
A story of migration, accusations, and the fragility of justice
The story of Alaa Faraj has been widely discussed in recent years in the context of migration, justice, and public debate in Italy.
According to judicial records and media coverage, Alaa Faraj is a young migrant who arrived in Europe after crossing the Central Mediterranean route. His name became known when he was involved in a criminal investigation linked to migrant smuggling networks and sea crossings departing from Libya—part of a broader series of cases in which Italian authorities attempted to reconstruct responsibility for shipwrecks and irregular migration routes. Continue
11 Gianluca Costantini: Drawing the Truth for Giulio Regeni
Naples hosts the national event on research freedom with an exhibition in the courtyard of Palazzo Corigliano
On May 19, 2026, at 2:30 PM, in the Conference Hall of Palazzo Corigliano at the University of Naples L’Orientale, artist and activist Gianluca Costantini will take part in the event “Universities for Giulio Regeni. Ten Years After His Disappearance, an Initiative for the Freedom of Research,” part of a nationwide mobilization dedicated to the memory of the Italian researcher murdered in Egypt in 2016.
The initiative, presented in the Italian Senate by Senator for Life Elena Cattaneo, brings together 76 universities across Italy and more than 15,000 participants in two months of meetings, debates, and screenings focused on academic freedom, research, and human rights. Between April and May 2026, each university is organizing a day of reflection centered around the documentary “Giulio Regeni – All the Evil in the World,” directed by Simone Manetti and written by Emanuele Cava and Matteo Billi, produced by Fandango and Ganesh Produzioni. Continue
12 Mitchel Cohen: poet, activist, and tireless voice against environmental violence
A lifelong struggle linking poetry, radical politics, and grassroots environmental justice
Mitchel Cohen was a poet, writer, and political activist whose work consistently bridged literature, environmental struggle, and grassroots organizing. Over decades, he became a central figure in New York’s radical political and cultural landscape, combining intellectual clarity with direct action and community engagement.
He authored several influential books, including What Is Direct Action and The Fight Against Monsanto’s Roundup and the Politics of Pesticides, in which he examined the links between corporate power, environmental destruction, and public health. His writing also appeared widely on platforms such as CounterPunch and Covert Action Magazine, where he contributed essays marked by political urgency and analytical depth. Continue
13 Gianluca Costantini’s Portraits for Liberazione’s First Edition
April 25 between history, art, and activism in New York
On April 25th, 2026, a talk and a fundraising party will connect the history of the Italian Resistance to a broader, universal call to remember, celebrate, and resist.
The first edition of the Liberazione festival
The independent collective Liberazione organizes a festival to celebrate Italy’s Liberation Day in New York, which will take place on April 25th, 2026, in Brooklyn, with a talk followed by a fundraising party.
Every year, Italy commemorates its liberation from fascism on April 25th, 1945, celebrating those who fought for freedom not with parades or displays of military power, but with marches, songs, and the simple act of showing up in public to say that this event still matters and we haven’t forgotten the struggle against fascism and the people who contributed to it. Continue
14 Anarchist Studies: Art, Anarchy, and Human Rights
Allan Antliff on Gianluca Costantini’s visual activism
In the latest issue of Anarchist Studies, published by the London-based publishing houseLawrence Wishart, an article by Allan Antliff has appeared titled “Gianluca Costantini on Freedom, Justice, and Palestine,” dedicated to the artist’s work.
This summer, Antliff visited Ravenna and spent time in my studio to gain a closer understanding of my artistic practice and my engagement with human rights issues and political representation through illustration.
Since 2003, Antliff has held the Canada Research Chair in Art History at the University of Victoria, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in modern and contemporary art. His research interests include Dada, contemporary art, anarchist history, and political theory. His graduate seminars include “20th-Century Anarchism and Avant-Garde Art,” “New York Dada,” and “American Modernism Between the Wars.” Continue
15 Eimear Walshe: Art, Land and Dissent
Between artistic research and political activism, the Irish artist’s work and arrest during the protest at Shannon Airport
“There can be no business as usual under genocide.” Elimear Walshe
Eimear Walshe is an Irish artist and writer considered one of the most compelling voices in the contemporary European art scene. Their practice spans video, performance, and writing, and explores themes such as land ownership, sexuality, inheritance, and the social transformations of modern Ireland. In 2024 Walshe gained international visibility representing Ireland at the Biennale di Venezia 2024, while in the same year they also became the focus of public debate following their arrest during a protest against the military use of Shannon Airport. Continue
From the Channeldraw video archive
The most-read article on Channeldraw in July 2026
Daniel Sanchez-Estrada sentenced to 30 years: the limits of free speech
Zines, terrorism, and the expansion of criminal law
In Texas, the case linked to the protest outside the Prairieland detention center continues to expand, increasingly taking on the contours of a political as well as judicial trial. The sentences handed down to several defendants — ranging from decades to up to 100 years in prison — have drawn the attention of legal scholars, activists, and civil rights organizations, particularly because of the expansive use of domestic terrorism charges applied to a protest context.
Among the most discussed cases is that of Daniel Sanchez-Estrada, sentenced to 30 years. In this case as well, his physical presence at the protest was never proven: according to available accounts, he was not on site during the clashes of July 4, 2025, outside the Prairieland facility. His involvement stems from a later and indirect episode, after a phone call from his wife, who was involved in the demonstration. At that moment, Sanchez-Estrada allegedly moved a box containing zines, small self-published booklets connected to radical political culture and social movements. Continue
Channeldraw is an independent and free project
If you appreciate this work and would like to support the maintenance of the website, you can subscribe through Substack or Patreon.
Even a small contribution helps sustain independent information, research, and visual storytelling.
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