Comics, medicine and memory | Dana Walrath | TEDxBattenkill

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. With a spirit of curiosity, compassion, and humor, Walrath weaves together her experience to broach a new genre of graphic medicine. Her novel, ’Aliceheimer’s’ crossed many boundaries, with reflections on aging, the caretaker’s role, and ancestral memory. With a community of help that included pirates, good neighbors, a cast of characters from space-time travel, Dana and her mother wrote their own story daily—a story that, in turn, helps rewrite the dominant medical narrative of aging. Writer, anthropologist and Fulbright Scholar Dana Walrath first discovered the connections between comics and medicine after years of using stories and art to teach students at University of Vermont’s College of Medicine. Her decision to take a leave from that work to care for her mother through dementia proved to be a pivotal one, and spawned ’Aliceheimer’s’ (Harvest 2013), a graphic memoir about life with Alice, before and during the illness. About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)