Casa Susanna : the story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968 / Isabelle Bonnet & Sophie Hackett.

Story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968

Brings together a wealth of research and an expansive selection of photographs to create an enduring account of America's first known trans network, Casa Susanna.In the 1950s and 60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves and live for a few days as they had always dreamed - dressed as and living as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression. This book opens up that now-lost world. The photographs - mostly discovered by chance in a New York flea market in 2004 - chronicle the experiences of men who dressed as women, gender nonconforming people, and transwomen in states of relaxation, experimentation, connection and joy. All of this was made possible by Susanna Valenti who - on her own journey toward womanhood - created Casa Susanna, a protected space where others could crossdress and live freely as women. Supplementing the images are excerpts from Transvestia, a magazine that allowed those who had been cast out by a rigidly binary society to connect in a different medium. The people who came to Casa Susanna found a spot where they could explore and celebrate their own and each other's femininity, as they could not do elsewhere. Their creations are also a reminder that there were, and still are, many ways to explore the boundaries of gender.

Susanna, Virginia, Doris, Fiona, Gail, Felicity, Gloria, and their friends, created a unique collective identity. Despite the risks, they corresponded with each other, got together, organized, and managed to alleviate their isolation through an underground magazine: Transvestia. Their haven was the home of Susanna and her wife Marie, tucked away in the Catskill Mountains, a few hours away from New York City. There they were able to live freely "en femme". Photography was essential to their identity as crossdressers; in a quasi-sacred ritual, photographs circulated widely within their community. Despite their now outdated female identities, the Casa Susanna crossdressers broke with the gender prescriptions of their time and defiantly refused to submit to an archaic cult of masculinity. Defiant and determined, they organized the first known trans network in the United States. In their day, the crossdressers of Casa Susanna called themselves "transvestites" or "TVs" for short. This term is today deemed pejorative, and we have avoided it wherever possible. In French, however, the only available term is "travesti". We have used it here both for historical accuracy, and because most of the members of the Casa Susanna network made a clear distinction between their identities as crossdressers and other trans identities... As historians, we have tried to strike a balance between historical facts, the ways the individuals in the Casa Susanna circle self-identified, and our contemporary awareness of a spectrum of gender identities. Thus, in our view, this community stands as the first known trans network in the United States. -- Isabelle Bonnet and Sophie Hackett, Curators' statement [https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/1488/casa-susanna].

London ; New York : Thames & Hudson ; Toronto, Ontario : AGO, 2023.

One volume (unpaged) : illustrations (some color), portraits, facsimiles ; 26 cm

Original edition: Edition Textuel, Paris, 2023.

"Published on the occassion of the exhibition Casa Susanna presented at Recontres d'Arles from July 3 to September 24, 2023 and at Art Gallery of Ontario from December 23, 2023 to April 14, 2023"--Colophon.

Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. 2023 Photography Catalogue of the Year Shortlist.

Introduction / Susan Stryker -- The story of the first trans network in the United States, 1959-1968 / Isabelle Bonnet -- Performing authenticity: Casa Susanna's crossdressers and photography / Sophie Hackett.

Includes bibliographical references.