Shaawan Francis Keahna
Graphic Designer, Cartoonist, & Storyteller
About
Shaawanobinesiik Francis Keahna Warrior wears many hats and names. On a good day, you can find him doing graphic design for a wide array of people and organizations. On a bad day (because there are often bad days) you’ll find him writing horror, poetry, and erotica, or taking long, wraithlike walks in haunted halls, forests, and tall, tall grass.
When Frank was little, he wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist or a writer for Spider-Man. As an adult, he split the difference and found himself making rogue and sanctioned comics across disciplines, medias, and dimensions. Sometimes he’s a musician, performing under the name Bogo La$ik when solo, or Billy Jackass with his father. For awhile he was a model and actor. True story. You can find plenty of evidence regarding this chapter of his life if you scroll down on his Instagram far enough or if you Google his old name. He figures he can trust you with his old name, because most of the elders in his life still call him by it, and it doesn’t even hurt all that much. Cleo. Her name was Cleo.
storytelling
A Place on the Edge of Breath, 2021
Hulu + IF/Then
New York, NY
Indigiqueer Futurisms, 2021
Two Spirit Talks
Ithaca, NY
Emerge: Stone Braids, 2018
Ev Pakinewatik + IFWTO
Toronto, ON
Dislocation Blues, 2017
Sky Hopinka
Standing Rock Nation
Get to know me
Okay, first person time, I guess. Hi! You’ve made it to my new website! Congratulations! Or, I’m sorry. Whichever feels more appropriate. My name is Fran. I’m trans, which matters, because for a very long time, I wanted to hide this fact, and now that hormones have done it for me, I’d like to rescind that desire in favor of a new one. I want to be one trans person in a large population of trans people. I want all of us to have good, long lives, and I want the people who truly want us gone to either get busy living or get busy dying. I know a little about living and a little about dying––but we don’t have to get into it. I’m also an enrolled member of the White Earth band of the Anishinaabe people, and a descendant of the sovereign Meskwaki Nation.
I keep joking that I’m going to pretend to be a pretendian to get money, but the joke’s gone stale now. We are what we are. The accident or intentionality of our births is about as important as what we do with it, and I recently found out that one of the translations of my nation’s name is “the people with no purpose.”
Writing
if you open your eyes they will turn red
Vassar Review 2019
R.I.S.E. IV
burymyart 2019
Parallax
Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time, 2016
ᔖᐘᓄᐱᓀᐢ 