Announcing Turner Family Stories
We received support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2019 to undertake the Vermont Cartooning and Culture Project—an experiment in non-fiction cartooning that focuses on creating comics from two sources: the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and primary source interview recordings in the Folklife Center Archive.
Cover art for Turner Family Stories, by Robyn Smith
We wrapped up the first part, a series of comics created by cartoonist Iona Fox with master artists and their apprentices, in the spring of 2019, and we have been working steadily on finishing up the second part, Turner Family Stories, a collection of comics drawn from the epic story of the Turner Family as shared by Daisy Turner.
Daisy Turner, born in Grafton, VT in 1883, was the daughter of formerly enslaved Alec and Sally Turner, who settled there in the years following the Civil War. In 1983 VFC founder Jane Beck met then 100-year-old Daisy and worked with her to record approximately 60 hours of interviews through which Daisy recounted the saga of several generations of her family.
Beginning in West Africa, Daisy's account follows her ancestors from abduction on the African coast to enslavement on a Virginia plantation; her father's experiences growing up enslaved; his escape during the Civil War, joining up with the First NJ Cavalry; his post-war experiences in the south and New England; his eventual arrival in Grafton, and purchase of the family homestead, "Journey's End."
In addition to stories of her father's family, Daisy shared with Jane rich accounts of her own long life, from her childhood in Grafton, her adult years living and working in Boston, and her eventual return to Grafton after her mother's death in 1923. Beginning in her childhood, Daisy continually—and successfully—challenged the limits placed on her as a Black woman in New England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, loudly asserting (even in court) her rights and the rights of her family members.
Working with six New England cartoonists Turner Family Stories presents two of Daisy's accounts from the life of her father, Alec Turner, by Marek Bennett and Joel Christian Gill, and two stories from Daisy's own life by Francis Bordeleau and Lilllie Harris. The comics adapted from Daisy's interviews are linked together through a story by Grafton native Ezra Veitch, based on a childhood encounter he and a friend had with Daisy one afternoon. Center for Cartoon Studies graduate Robyn Smith drew the volume's cover. The book also features a Forward by Gretchen Gerzina, Introduction by Julian Chambliss and a Preface by Jane Beck.
In partnership with the Vermont Department of Libraries, VFC will distribute copies of the book free to all public libraries in the state. Turner Family Stories will also be available for purchase. The book will be published in summer 2021. We are extremely grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Arts Council for their support.