About this Event
We are thrilled to welcome Tillie Walden for an event celebrating the release of Charity and Sylvia. For this event, Tillie will be joined in conversation by Caroline Cash.
This is a ticketed event that will be held offsite at Haymarket House (800 W Buena Ave).
An openly Lesbian couple survives and thrives in 19th century Vermont–a true story, as told by Tillie Walden
The month is February in the year 1807. The place is Weybridge, Vermont: small, cold, lonely, and beautiful. Sylvia Drake is exhausted. As an unwed woman with few prospects, she is residing with and caring for her sister’s rambunctious family. Today the house is abuzz awaiting a guest—Charity Bryant. A friend of the family, she is most known for her elegant letters, with their swoopy and evocative penmanship and carefully chosen prose. But Charity’s visit is a guise, she is coming to Vermont to start over after heartbreak and rumours—so many rumours—that have grown too loud back in Massachusetts.
Being openly gay in 19th century New England is not an easy row to hoe. But Charity can only be herself, and she immediately catches—and holds—the eye of none other than Sylvia Drake. From this point on, for 44 years, the two would be inseparable, building a life together despite all odds and living as a lesbian couple in small town Vermont.
The true, exceptional story of these remarkable women is brought to life with humor and passion by the unparalleled and award-winning Tillie Walden (Spinning, On A Sunbeam). We see America grow alongside these women over a period that brings about the railroad, many novels, 14 Presidents, riots, rebellion, plagues, and poetry. Based on extensive archives of their writing, Charity and Sylvia is a groundbreaking biography that is also the story of 19th century America.
Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is the creator of a number of award-winning graphic novels including On a Sunbeam, Spinning, and the Walking Dead’s Clementine Trilogy. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont where she now teaches and lives with her wife and son.
Caroline Cash is a cartoonist from Charleston, South Carolina. She is currently drawing the legacy comic strip Nancy. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, MoMA Magazine, VICE, The Chicago Reader, The Nib, and various other publications. Cash is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a MacDowell fellow. Besides Nancy, she’s actively working on her Eisner and Ignatz award-winning series PeePeePooPoo, as well as a debut graphic novel to be published by Drawn and Quarterly. She is a Capricorn.
Accessibility: This event is hosted at Haymarket House (800 W Buena) which is a wheelchair accessible space. The wheelchair ramp is located via the private parking lot, which is accessible via N. Clarendon Avenue. Masks are required at Haymarket House. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email [email protected] by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email [email protected]. We have a limited amount of free scholarship tickets for this event. To receive one, please email [email protected].
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Haymarket House, 800 West Buena Avenue, Chicago, United States
USD 6.24
