In her book The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded, poet Molly McCully Brown explores themes of disability, eugenics and faith. Kristin Teston/Persea hide caption
In her book The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded, poet Molly McCully Brown explores themes of disability, eugenics and faith.
Growing up in southwestern Virginia in recent decades, poet Molly McCully Brown often passed by a state institution in Amherst County that was once known as the "Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded."
Since 1983 the facility, which was founded in 1910, has been called the Central Virginia Training Center, and it is now a residential home for people with various intellectual disabilities. But in the early 20th century, the place Brown now refers to as "the colony" was part of the eugenics movement taking hold in the U.S., and a variety of treatments now considered inhumane were practiced there including forced sterilization. Brown, who has cerebral palsy, notes that had she been born in an earlier era, she might have been sent to live at the institution herself.
"It is impossible to know that for sure," she says. "I can look at my life and look at my family and look at my parents and think, No, never. That never would have happened. But I also understand that if I had been born 50 years earlier, the climate was very different."
She hopes to give voice to those early generations of residents, in her book of poetry, The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded.
For Brown, the themes of disability and poetry have been constant throughout her life: "In my life, there has always been my body in some state of falling apart or disrepair or attempting to be fixed, and there has always been poetry. And I couldn't untwine those things if I tried."
Interview Highlights
On seeing the buildings and grounds of the old facility
It was incredibly moving and incredibly powerful. The place is interesting because it is still an operational facility for adults with really serious disabilities, although it is in the process of closing. But like a lot of things in Virginia, it was initially built on an enormous amount of land. And, so, a really interesting thing happened, which is that as the buildings that were originally part of the colony fell into disrepair, they were largely just moved out of and new buildings were built on accompanying land, but those original buildings were not necessarily torn down. So the place itself is this really strange combination of functioning facility and ghost town of everything that it has been. I've never been in a place that felt more acutely haunted in my life.
On how some people assume her physical disability means she also has an intellectual disability
We do have a strange tendency in this country to equate any kind of disability with less intellectual capability and with even a less complete humanity. Certainly as a child and as a teenager and even now as an adult [I] encountered people who assumed that just because I used a wheelchair, maybe I couldn't even speak to them. I often get questions directed at people I'm with, as opposed to me, and that's a really interesting phenomenon.
On the connection between poetry and theology
Both poetry and theology for me are about paying attention to the world in a very intentional way, and about admitting a mystery that is bigger than anything that I rationally understand. ... I think poetry has always been for me a kind of prayer. So those things feel very linked for me. And, again, poetry does feel like the first and in some ways best language I ever had for mystery and for my sense of what exists beyond the world we're currently living in.
On how Catholicism has helped her accept her body
One of the things that I find so moving about Catholicism is that it never forgets that to be a person is inherently and inescapably and necessarily to be in a body a body that brings you pain, a body that brings you pleasure, a body that can be a barrier to thinking more completely about your life and your soul but [that it] can also be a vehicle to delivering you into better communion with the world, with other people and to whatever divinity it is that you believe in.
What Catholicism did for me, in part, is give me a framework in which to understand my body as not an accident or a punishment or a mistake, but as the body that I am meant to have and that is constitutive of so much of who I am and what I've done and what I hope I will do in the world.
More and more ... I've come to see my body as a place of pride and potential, and as something that gives me a unique outlook onto the world. And I'd rather that, I guess, than be infuriated by it.
On her twin sister, who died shortly after birth
She lived about 36 hours after we were born. ... It's a phenomenon in my life that I have not a lot of rational explanation for, ... but it is true that I miss my sister with a kind of intense specificity that has no rational explanation, and that I feel aware of her presence in this way that I can't exactly explain or articulate, but which feels undeniable to me. ...
I do think that that sort of gave me no other option than to believe in some kind of something beyond this current mortal life that we're living. Because what is the explanation otherwise for the fact that I feel like I miss and I know this person who only lived a matter of hours? And for the fact as much as I know that she is dead and is gone in a real way, she doesn't feel "disappeared" to me.
On how her physical disability and her poetry are intertwined
I think the easiest way I have of describing it is I have two [early] memories. ... One of them is of sitting on a table in a hospital room in the children's hospital in St. Louis, choosing the flavor of the anesthetic gas I was going to breathe when they put me under to do my first major surgery. I was picking between cherry and butterscotch and grape. And the second memory that I have is of my father reading a Robert Hayden poem called "Those Winter Sundays."
Roberta Shorrock and Therese Madden produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Deborah Franklin adapted it for the Web.
Read the original here:
Poet With Cerebral Palsy Speaks To Early Eugenics Movement - NPR - NPR
- Man With Cerebral Palsy Imitates Michael Phelps Rule Yourself Video - SwimSwam - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Baby Connor McCue diagnosed with cerebral palsy - months after successful liver transplant - Stoke Sentinel - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Fundraiser for local teacher with cerebral palsy takes off - Longview Daily News - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Rockford athlete with cerebral palsy trains for IRONMAN World ... - Fox17 - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Andrew Spencer: Norwood teen with cerebral palsy found safe after ... - WCPO - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- I'm Celebrating Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month For the First Time ... - TeenVogue.com - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Cerebral palsy Overview - Mayo Clinic - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Local 22-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy to get free chair lift - 13newsnow.com - March 25th, 2017 [March 25th, 2017]
- Missing 13-year-old with cerebral palsy found safe - WLWT.com - WLWT Cincinnati - March 26th, 2017 [March 26th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy | The Mighty - March 26th, 2017 [March 26th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy Overview - Cerebal Palsy Guidance - March 26th, 2017 [March 26th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy Group Support and Resources for Cerebral Palsy - March 26th, 2017 [March 26th, 2017]
- Teen with cerebral palsy earns spot in state finals for track and field - 7News - WSVN-TV - March 27th, 2017 [March 27th, 2017]
- Parma mother of child with Cerebral Palsy gets unexplainable water and sewer bills - newsnet5.com - March 27th, 2017 [March 27th, 2017]
- Living with cerebral palsy - TheChronicleHerald.ca - March 28th, 2017 [March 28th, 2017]
- Cerebral palsy couldn't stop Gillian from finishing eight remarkable races - Belfast Telegraph - March 28th, 2017 [March 28th, 2017]
- Life's Equation Book Signing for National Cerebral Palsy Month - FOX31 Denver - March 28th, 2017 [March 28th, 2017]
- Montrose cerebral palsy sufferer reaches impasse with Angus Council - Montrose Review - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- Living with cerebral palsy, he's also become 'The Dude': a food critic - MyAJC - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- uOttawa students engineer foot-controlled TV converter for man with ... - Ottawa Citizen - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- Cerebral palsy children's home receives a face-lift - Rising Sun Overport - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- Youngstown news, Taekwondo helps 13-year-old with cerebral palsy - Youngstown Vindicator - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- Man born with Cerebral Palsy thanks Michael Phelps for teaching ... - WOTV4women.com - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- Cavs ticket winner gives prize to 10-year-old with cerebral palsy - fox8.com - March 30th, 2017 [March 30th, 2017]
- 12-Year-Old with Cerebral Palsy Meets His 'Hero' John Cena: 'My Heart Melts,' Says Dad - PEOPLE.com - March 31st, 2017 [March 31st, 2017]
- Norfolk family's video of son with cerebral palsy goes viral - 13newsnow.com - March 31st, 2017 [March 31st, 2017]
- Milton Boxer With Cerebral Palsy Remains Undefeated - CBS Boston / WBZ - March 31st, 2017 [March 31st, 2017]
- Chase High hosts Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day | News ... - The Daily Courier - April 1st, 2017 [April 1st, 2017]
- 'That Stroller Is Peyton's Life,' Special Wheelchair Stolen From Girl With Cerebral Palsy - CBS New York - April 1st, 2017 [April 1st, 2017]
- John Cena meets 12-year-old fan with cerebral palsy - My Fox Boston - April 1st, 2017 [April 1st, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy - Cerebral Palsy - April 1st, 2017 [April 1st, 2017]
- Blazing New Trails: Updates in the Care of Children with Cerebral Palsy - Wayne County Journal Banner - April 2nd, 2017 [April 2nd, 2017]
- Cerebal Palsy An Overview of Symptoms, Causes, and ... - April 2nd, 2017 [April 2nd, 2017]
- John Cena meets 12-year-old fan with cerebral palsy - WPXI Pittsburgh - April 3rd, 2017 [April 3rd, 2017]
- Tri-Cities 12-year-old with cerebral palsy meets his hero, John Cena - WJHL - April 3rd, 2017 [April 3rd, 2017]
- Cord blood stem cells offer promising treatments for Cerebral Palsy - April 4th, 2017 [April 4th, 2017]
- This 3-Year-Old With Cerebral Palsy Is Spreading Awareness In Style - Huffington Post - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- Govt Urged to Make Special Provision for Children with Cerebral Palsy - THISDAY Newspapers - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- Topsham student with cerebral palsy launches road race - The Forecaster - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- Students design 'Chandler's Chariot' for boy with cerebral palsy - WBAL Baltimore - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- WWE star John Cena surprises young fan with cerebral palsy in heartwarming video - Globalnews.ca - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy (Center for Cerebral Palsy) | Gillette ... - April 5th, 2017 [April 5th, 2017]
- 'Cerebral palsy will never stop me from being successful' - Evening Telegraph - April 7th, 2017 [April 7th, 2017]
- Otte student proposes cerebral palsy awareness event | Local News ... - Blair Enterprise Publishing - April 7th, 2017 [April 7th, 2017]
- Cobb trampoline park adds events for those with autism, cerebral ... - Atlanta Journal Constitution - April 7th, 2017 [April 7th, 2017]
- The Heart of a Champion: Riverside student battling cerebral palsy gets surprise of a lifetime - San Benito News - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Princeton Ethics Professor Defends Woman Convicted of Raping ... - Christian News Network - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Nine-year-old cerebral palsy patient is guest of honour at unveiling of Co-op revamp - Nottingham Post - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Perth woman with cerebral palsy faces losing driver's licence after 36 years - ABC Online - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Cerebral palsy may be linked to birth weight - Independent Online - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy's Kate Laver tennis invitational - The Desert Sun - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Gurgaon: Doctors come together to treat Cerebral Palsy in children ... - Hindustan Times - April 11th, 2017 [April 11th, 2017]
- Teen takes best friend with Cerebral Palsy to prom - Story | WNYW - Fox5NY - April 11th, 2017 [April 11th, 2017]
- No compensation for girl left with cerebral palsy in 'tragic' home birth ... - Echo - April 11th, 2017 [April 11th, 2017]
- No compensation for girl left with cerebral palsy in 'tragic' home birth as top judge rules midwives 'could not have ... - Echo - April 11th, 2017 [April 11th, 2017]
- Man with cerebral palsy is memorable in more ways than 1 ... - Washington Times - April 12th, 2017 [April 12th, 2017]
- White Sox announcer gives play-by-play on finding success with ... - CNN - April 15th, 2017 [April 15th, 2017]
- Grandmother takes on epic Everest trek for grandson with cerebral palsy - Taranaki Daily News - April 15th, 2017 [April 15th, 2017]
- Rare surgery helps kids with cerebral palsy walk - KHOU - April 15th, 2017 [April 15th, 2017]
- Princeton Ethics Professor Defends Woman Convicted of Raping Man With Cerebral Palsy - GOPUSA - April 16th, 2017 [April 16th, 2017]
- Parents promote partial OHIP funded life changing cerebral palsy U.S. surgery - insideTORONTO.com - April 16th, 2017 [April 16th, 2017]
- Cerebral palsy girl Molly Grace helped in Facebook appeal - BBC ... - BBC News - April 16th, 2017 [April 16th, 2017]
- Students create cerebral palsy toothbrush - Bangalore Mirror - April 18th, 2017 [April 18th, 2017]
- Dad's Facebook Appeal To Find Feeding Tube For Daughter With Cerebral Palsy Is Huge Success - Huffington Post UK - April 18th, 2017 [April 18th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy can't stop me from surfing - News24 - April 18th, 2017 [April 18th, 2017]
- Heartland man with cerebral palsy inspires others in his quest to walk - WOWT - April 19th, 2017 [April 19th, 2017]
- Derby-themed party races to help cure cerebral palsy - MDJOnline.com - April 19th, 2017 [April 19th, 2017]
- Five-year-old with cerebral palsy making strides thanks to surgery in Ohio - WKEF ABC 22 - April 20th, 2017 [April 20th, 2017]
- Greek Week Raises Over $50,000 for Cerebral Palsy Awareness - University of Miami - April 21st, 2017 [April 21st, 2017]
- 5-year-old girl with cerebral palsy takes her first steps thanks to miracle surgery - AOL - April 21st, 2017 [April 21st, 2017]
- Wellington Rotary Club to post Outrun Cerebral Palsy 5K - Palm Beach Post (blog) - April 21st, 2017 [April 21st, 2017]
- Surgical Procedure Can Reduce Pain, Improve Mobility For Children With Cerebral Palsy - CBS New York - April 21st, 2017 [April 21st, 2017]
- Amazing Women Series: Mother in 'constant awe' of triplets - Canadian Jewish News (blog) - April 24th, 2017 [April 24th, 2017]
- 1st annual Madoc walk for cerebral palsy - www.insidebelleville.com/ - April 24th, 2017 [April 24th, 2017]
- Willard senior with cerebral palsy to compete in national speech tournament - Springfield News-Leader - April 26th, 2017 [April 26th, 2017]
- Meet Dr Amitabh Mehrotra, who defeated cerebral palsy to start a school for children with disabilities in Lucknow - YourStory.com - April 26th, 2017 [April 26th, 2017]
- Watch Marijuana Help This Girl With Cerebral Palsy And Autism - The Fresh Toast - April 26th, 2017 [April 26th, 2017]
- Young N. Idaho inventors adapt car for child with cerebral palsy ... - KTVB - April 27th, 2017 [April 27th, 2017]
- Patrick Barden set to complete London marathon with cerebral palsy - Metro - April 27th, 2017 [April 27th, 2017]
- Cerebral Palsy sufferer, Patrick Barden, from Shorne, completes London Marathon - Kent Online - April 30th, 2017 [April 30th, 2017]