{"product_id":"casa-susanna-the-story-of-the-first-trans-network-in-the-united-states-1959-1968-9780500297902","title":"Casa Susanna: The Story of the First Trans Network in the United States, 1959-1968","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the 1950s and '60s, an underground network of transgender women, gender nonconforming people, and men who dressed as women found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eCasa Susanna\u003c\/em\u003e opens up that now-lost world. The photographs--mostly discovered by chance in a New York flea market in 2004--chronicle the experiences of these women 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 do the same. Supplementing the images, excerpts from the magazine \u003cem\u003eTransvestia\u003c\/em\u003e record a different kind of space where those who had been outcast by a rigidly binary society could connect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe people who came to Casa Susanna found a space where they could explore and celebrate their own and each other's femininity, as they could not elsewhere. Their creations are also a reminder that there were, and still are, many ways to explore the boundaries of gender.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Thames \u0026 Hudson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50614714958098,"sku":"9780500297902","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f4e8e5b9-b6d8-4bc5-93d2-6cc086b27c17.jpg?v=1732457895","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/casa-susanna-the-story-of-the-first-trans-network-in-the-united-states-1959-1968-9780500297902","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}