Stories tagged Smoke and Mirrors

Students From Small Cartooning School Find Outsized Success

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT – Far from the large cities and cultural centers, a school with less than 40 students in rural Vermont is leaving its mark in a big way. Established in 2005, The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) can point to both current students and graduates experiencing the type of success that creators dream about.

Most recently Emma Hunsinger ’20 had a ten-page comic in The New Yorker (12/30/19 issue). Originally appearing online, “How to Draw a Horse” began as a non-fiction class assignment. Lucy Knisley’s ’09 most recent children’s book You Are New (Chronicle Books) was named a Top 25 Children’s Books of 2019 by The New York Times. Widely considered one of the most outstanding cartoonists of her generation, Tillie Walden ’16 most recently published Are You Listening (First Second), her third major graphic novel since graduating from CCS. Her first graphic novel, the Eisner award-winning memoir Spinning, began as her CCS thesis project.

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Drag Icon Sasha Velour ′13 Makes Triumphant Return To Vermont As CCS Commencement Speaker

White River Junction, Vermont – CCS alumni Sasha Velour ′13, a gender-fluid drag queen and international icon, will deliver the commencement address to The Center for Cartoon Studies’ class of 2020. The Commencement Ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 2, 2020 at 11am, at The Barrette Center for The Arts in White River Junction, Vermont. Velour first began performing in drag in White River Junction.

Velour was the winner of season 9 of the Emmy Award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race. Since winning, she has had top billing in drag shows around the world, including sold out solo appearances in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Toronto, Vancouver, and Auckland.  Her performances have been hailed as “expressionist performance-art illustration” by The New York Times and a “spellbinding tour de force” by Forbes.

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Sasha Velour ′13 on Smoke and Mirrors Tour

Sasha Velour, Smoke and Mirros: The Live Show

Sasha Velour ′13 is going on a North American tour with Smoke and Mirrors. Starting on October 21 in Texas and winding their way through The States and across Canada. The show toured Australia and New Zealand with In The Dark Events in January 2019 to rave reviews. It debuted in the U.S. for the first time in March 2019 at New York Live Arts, played The Ace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles in May, and made its UK debut with two sold-out engagements at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London this August.

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Sasha Velour’s “Three Dollar Riot”

Cover of Three Dollar Riots
New cover for Three Dollar Riots

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, Sasha Velour ′13 is releasing her history comic, Three Dollar Riot. Starting as her thesis right here at The Center for Cartoon Studies, the 36-page comic follows the events of the evening of June 27th, 1969, leading up to the riots. Three Dollar Riot is available for preorder for the price of 19.69.

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