Talk | Politics of Poetics: Molly McCully Brown and Matt Bodett

Politics of Poetics brings poet Molly McCully Brown to the MCA for a reading followed by a conversation with Chicago-based artist and Director of the Center for Mad Culture, Matt Bodett.

McCully Brown reads a selection of her work including poems from her critically acclaimed debut collection, The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded (Persea Books, 2017). The Colony, located 15 miles from where McCully Brown grew up, was deeply involved in the eugenics movement in the first half of the 20th century. She is joined by artist Matt Bodett—who recently published Dunning: Special Report, a book on the Cook County Asylum—to discuss a shared interest in researching psychologically and politically charged sites as sources of inspiration for new narratives and understandings of disability and mental health past and present in the United States.

Politics of Poetics is a series of workshops, readings, and conversations highlighting contemporary poets whose practices traverse the political in writing, teaching, and activism.