Page Rage Debuts

Graphic storytelling is a therapeutic tool in the new Spring Phase course

Graphic storytelling has been a staple of art education at The Hive for many years. From “Introduction to Art” to the Interdisciplinary Project, the medium serves as a multi-level teaching tool that enhances students’ written and visual skills. Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair Pam Wye H’18 believed the graphic memoir could achieve something else: help students delve deeply into personal and traumatic experiences, which is why the Spring Phase project, Page Rage, debuted in May. 

“I always admired Stage Rage,” said Ms. Wye, referencing the longstanding theatrical/therapeutic Spring Phase project, which gives students a voice to process trauma and the tough circumstances of their lives. “Graphic stories are a way of working through the issues and uncovering memories.” 

Similar to Stage Rage, Page Rage was a collaborative effort involving the arts faculty and the Grossman Family Counseling Center. The counseling center selected seven students from the Boys Prep Division for the inaugural program. Director of Crisis Intervention John Rowe H’25 and counselor Daniel DeLorenzi led daily group therapy sessions during the five-week Spring Phase. Students then developed their graphic memoirs in the art room with Ms. Wye, Mr. Rowe and Mr. DeLorenzi accompanying them in various capacities. 

Prompts, such as “Draw your protagonist and antagonist,” or “Write about a time you cried,” were drawing and writing exercises designed to help kids identify the story they wanted to tell. Ms. Wye brings a firsthand understanding of the power of graphic storytelling to the project. Her long-running graphic memoir, “Water I’ve Loved” (a chapter of which was recently nominated for an Eisner Award, the most prestigious award in the comic industry), recounts life with a bipolar mother. “Certain stories are hard to tell,” she noted. “As you start to craft confusing memories into a structure that is necessary for a story, you can begin to have power over it.” 

Mr. Rowe described Page Rage as a powerful and positive experience for students and the counselors. In some cases, a student might talk to a counselor on an ad hoc basis, but “Page Rage can be the impetus to get kids into regular counseling,” he explained. Adolescent males may also feign indifference to their own struggles and suffering. “It’s not that bad. I can get through it,” is a familiar refrain to Grossman Center counselors. “Our job is to walk with them as they document their stories and process what they talk about in group therapy.” 

Page Rage students presented seven original graphic stories on May 27 to an intimate audience of faculty, monks and classmates. “It was a good day,” said Mr. Rowe, one that the Page Rage team hopes to keep repeating. “To see kids talk openly with people they trust about experiences they’ve suppressed, it’s definitely transformational. It’s also the start of the real work.” 

Page Rage will continue as a Spring Phase project and perhaps a Fall or Winter term course. Mr. DeLorenzi and Ms. Wye presented Page Rage at a roundtable for the Graphic Medicine Summit 2025 in July. The annual online event, sponsored by the Sequential Artists Workshop in conjunction with the Graphic Medicine International Collective, explores the intersection of comics and healthcare.