April 12, 2016

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT: On Friday, May 6, The Center for Cartoon Studies will hold its 10th commencement ceremony. This year’s speaker is New York Times best-selling cartoonist Nate Powell, whose work includes March, a graphic novel autobiography of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis; a graphic adaptation of Rick Riordan’s novel The Lost Hero; and graphic novels You Don’t Say, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole, The Silence Of Our Friends, and The Year of the Beasts.

Powell’s work has received a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, four YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens selections, a Best American Comics selection, and has been nominated for a total of eight Eisner Awards and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Powell has discussed his work on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, CNN, and at the United Nations. His books are on school curricula in more than 40 states, and his animated illustrations in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s documentary, Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot, will reach roughly one million students in 50,000 schools across the nation. In addition to his cartooning efforts, from 1999 to 2009 Powell worked full-time providing support for adults with developmental disabilities.

Thanks to the generosity of our community partner and host Northern Stage, The Center for Cartoon Studies’ ceremony will be held in The Barrette Center for the Arts, Northern Stage’s new, state-of-the-art theater, at 5 pm on Friday, May 6. Seating is limited, first come, first-served. Doors open at 4:30 pm.

A thesis exhibit featuring original work by the graduating class will be on exhibit throughout the month of May in the CCS Gallery in the Colodny Building at 94 South Main Street, open Monday-Friday from noon-4 pm.