Compulsive Narratives: Stories that MUST be Told
Lectures and Exhibition Tours

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014, 7:30PM

Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center

Chris Ware is an award winning American comic book artist and cartoonist, notable for his Acme novelty Library series, begun in 1994, and the graphic novels Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories. Presented by the MFA Writers in Camden Series, co-sponsored by RCCA.


Thursday, February 20, 2014, 5:30 pm

Stedman Gallery

Guest curator Cheryl Harper will give a walking tour of the exhibition Compulsive Narratives: Stories that MUST be Told. Elad Strohmayer, Deputy Counsel General to the Consulate General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, will deliver opening remarks. The Consulate General provided generous assistance for this exhibition.


Tuesday, March 4th, 2014, 12:15pm

E-Classroom, Paul Robeson Library

À toute épreuve: La bande dessinée en français (Fail-Proof: Comics and Graphic Novels in French) presented by Dr. Alisa Belanger of the Foreign Languages Department, curator of an exhibit of comics and graphic novels in French will be held in the Paul Robeson Library through the month of March, and includes more than two dozen works by authors and illustrators from throughout the French-speaking world.


Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014, 12:15PM

Fine Arts Building, Room FA 110

Ellen Forney: Finding Your Voice, part of an inspirational series of informal talks with young professionals about keeping a sense of purpose, creativity, and committed integrity in today’s work environment. Funded by the Rutgers-Camden Campus Center, and co-sponsored by the Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts, in conjunction with the graphic novel exhibition in the Stedman Gallery “Compulsive Narratives: Stories that MUST be Told,” in which Ellen Forney is participating. 

Ellen Forney grew up in Philadelphia where she attended Masterman High School She has lived in Seattle since 1989. At Wesleyan University, she majored in Psychology, which may have prepared her, since she had some general knowledge, during a journey to understand her diagnosis and treatment options years later. As is the case with many chronic bipolar disorder patients, she can chart a genetic family tree of depress. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me, A Graphic Memoir, was a sensation since its publication, with reviews,  features and interviews in newspapers, journals, and other outlets including: The New York Times, the Guardian, National Public Radio, Los Angeles Times and Publisher’s Weekly.


Friday, April 4th, 2014, 5:00pm

Fine Arts Building, Room FA 110

Roundtable with Mark Newport, David Small, and Peter Kuper, moderated by guest curator Cheryl Harper

Mark Newport, Artist-in-Residence and Head of Fibers at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI knits 8-foot long superhero costumes that hang like skins. The Stedman Gallery will feature his less familiar characters including Argyleman, Sweaterman, and Y-man. A video of his super-powered knitting accompanies the costumes.

David Small explores his 1960s aspiring upper-middle class family in Stitches, where he traces its unraveling when his well-intentioned radiologist father over-radiated him causing juvenile thyroid cancer, his accidental discovery of the relationship between his mother and her female lover and dementia-addled grandmother who put his well-being at serious risk.

Peter Kuper’s autobiographical graphic narratives are self-obsessed tales of youthful sexual exploration. Known for his 20-uyear stewardship of “Spy vs. Spy” in Mad Magazine, he publishes travel sketchbooks, most recently in Oaxaca.