Essay #37: Janet Biehl, ‘Their Blood Got Mixed’

In this essay, Janet Biehl discusses her new graphic memoir, Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS, an exploration of the Rojava revolution as of the spring of 2019. She gives an overview of the revolution and the many and varied people she interviewed, explains how she came to write and illustrate the book, and offers her thoughts on the meaning of this remarkable experiment. 

Janet Biehl is an independent editor, author, artist, and translator. Her previous publications are (as author) Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin (Oxford University Press, 2015), and (as translator) Michel Knapp et al., Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan (Pluto, 2016). The independent film that Janet refers to, called Road to Rojava, will appear in 2023. 

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro

Artwork by Sam G.