Faythe Levine

media release: A Room of One's Own is excited to host author and archivist Faythe Levine in celebration and discussion of her book As Ever, Miriam.

About the book

As Ever, Miriam by Faythe Levine centers on the relationship and lives of Charlotte Russell Partridge (1882-1975) and Miriam Frink (1892-1978), who co-founded and ran the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and lived together for over 50 years. This book presents a collection of epistolary sign-offs from Frink’s letters to Partridge across the decades of their working and personal relationships, exploring how one says goodbye over 50 years. 

Featuring a thorough introduction by the author, a 10-inch long foldout timeline, and robust footnotes sprinkled with fun facts that bring context to the brief archival excerpts, Levine contextualizes the relationship between the two and their contributions to the arts in Milwaukee and beyond. 

Levine’s text suits a methodical reader as well as a casual browser. Notable, however, is her introduction that positions her personal and kindred relationship to the lives she encounters through her letter-based research. Levine is currently based in upstate New York but spent twenty years living and working in Wisconsin. She has a career engaging with archives and collections through a queer, feminist lens that spans decades. As Ever, Miriam would interest readers connected to art education, queer archival methods, twentieth-century history, and anything related to correspondence and biography.

OK Stamp Press published the first edition (300) of As Ever, Miriam, using a unique radical non-monetary mutual aid model. With the support of Combos Press, the second edition will be accessible to a larger audience and now available on the Combos Press site.

Faythe Levine has been in service to the arts for over twenty years, advocating for creativity to be used as a vehicle to build community, personal independence, and empowerment. Motivated by reimagining archives and collections through a queer feminist lens, her creative labor intersects with curatorial projects, consulting, writing, documentary film, and community events. Her core belief is that visual culture is a conduit for radical change and generative dialogue. She strives to perpetuate momentum toward a liberatory future with space for collaboration, transparency, and complexity.

Levine recently published her fourth book, As Ever, Miriam (2024), which explores the expansive lives of Charlotte Partridge (1882–1975) and Miriam Frink (1892–1978) through extensive archival research spanning many years. The second edition is available online via Combos Press. A related exhibition will open at the Lynden Sculpture Garden gallery in November 2025.