Fact, Fiction, and Storytelling in the Archive

“Partridge and Frink haven’t been entirely forgotten nor erased like so many others, but there is still a lack of visibility and understanding about their personal dynamics and professional impact… While doing my research, I found nearly every component in their papers compelling: more often than not, a single document prompted an entirely new string of questions…”

–Faythe Levine, author of As Ever, Miriam (2024)

Visiting author and artist Faythe Levine is motivated by reimagining archives and collections through a queer feminist lens. She will give a visually led talk about her many-year research process, about her recently published fourth book, As Ever, Miriam (2024). This book centers on the relationship and lives of Charlotte Russell Partridge (1882-1975) and Miriam Frink (1892-1978), whose papers are housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives. Through her extensive archival and secondary research involving books, magazines, newspapers, and interviews, Levine brings readers into the work of connecting archival traces to tell stories about past lives. Frink and Partridge’s impact on Milwaukee’s cultural landscape was unprecedented and remains underrecognized, and Levine’s lecture will encourage future scholarship and conversations around deeper knowledge of their legacy.

Levine is currently based in the Hudson Valley in New York. She has been in service to the arts for over twenty years, many of those during her previous time living in Wisconsin. Her creative labor intersects with curatorial projects, writing, documentary film, and community events.

During the week, Levine’s day job is the Hauser & Wirth Institute Archivist and Collections Manager for Women’s Studio Workshop, a residency and artist book publisher that supports women, trans, queer, intersex, and nonbinary artists. Her position focuses on WSW’s work as a hub for radical thought, and she manages, oversees, and increases public visibility of the archives and special collections through public engagement and exhibitions.

A related exhibition, Time is Running Out, curated by Levine in response to her archival research, will open at the Lynden Sculpture Garden on November 15, 2025, and run through March 14, 2026.

Books can be purchased and signed at the close of the program courtesy of Lion’s Tooth