Neshkoro Public Library

The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, poems, Molly McCully Brown

eng

no index present

poetry

The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded

951925687

Molly McCully Brown

poems

"These poems explore the haunted legacy of the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, a medical institution at the heart of the eugenics movement in the first half of the twentieth century in America. The author, who has cerebral palsy, grew up in the shadow of the former Colony in southwestern Virginia, aware that, had she been born fifty years earlier, she would quite possibly been admitted there, and exposed to a variety of inhumane treatments, including forced sterilization. Her poems give voice to the Colony's chorus of residents, reclaiming for them elements of their humanity" --, Provided by publisher

The Central Virginia Training Center -- In the dormitory. Where you are (i) -- Grand Mal seizure -- Labor -- Every other thing I see is a ghost -- Without a mind -- In the blind room. Where you are (ii) -- What there is to give -- New knowledge for the dark -- The blind room: an execration -- The blind room: a consecration -- Away -- What you're after -- In the field. Where you are (iii) -- Far field -- Bird's-eye -- Where you are (iv) -- In the chapel. Where you are (v) -- Psalm -- Prayer for the wretched among us -- The convulsions choir -- What exactly is overheard -- Interlude. Transubstantiation -- Going to water -- To that girl, as an infant -- In the infirmary. Where you are (vi) -- A dictionary of hereditiary defects -- Before the State Hospital Board (i) -- The cleaving -- Before the State Hospital Board (ii) -- While under -- Before the State Hospital Board (iii) -- Numb -- In the dormitory -- Where you are (vii) -- Oxygen -- After all (nothing) -- After all (everything)