ABC ISSUE NO.8:
30% OF BUFFALO
by Charmaine Wheatley
published by Booklyn Artists Alliance, 2010

44 pages offset in full color. Letterpressed covers. Edition of 1250 copies.

Charmaine Wheatley is a performance artist who has turned increasingly to drawing and painting of a narrative nature. "30% of Buffalo" features intimate portraits of adult learners and tutors from Literacy Volunteers of Western New York and Erie County whose stories provide insight into how
the ability to read can impact lives.

One in three residents of the City of Buffalo is functionally illiterate.On a national level, between 41% and 44% of adults with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. 60% of prison inmates are illiterate. 76% of adults on public assistance
are illiterate or unable to read more than the simplest of texts. Given these startling statistics, illiteracy is undoubtedly a matter that affects not only individuals, but our entire society. Graphic novels are affordable, portable, and thereby an accessible format for establishing collective awareness and heightened visibility of artwork.

Captured through Wheatley's sequential drawings of "life observed" at Literacy Volunteers are the socially devastating realities of illiteracy and its interrelationship with levels of freedom, self-esteem, poverty, and crime. Beyond this expository function, the book serves as an emotive testament to our ability to listen and empathize with one another's personal experiences through recognition of our universal contentionfor survival or, as the artist describes, "that feeling that makes us go RAWR."

— Cori Wolff, Curator of Buffalo Arts Studios Galleries, Buffalo, NY

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