Kore Press and the University of Arizona have joined forces to create a city-wide series of events exploring the impact of personal stories on public health and safety. “UnSilencing Anatomies” runs from October 1 -November 30, and will include a streetcar journey/performance, story-gathering, readings, a panel, and exhibits. This series offers opportunities to connect diverse communities with university and health care academics and professionals to promote critical thinking about the medical humanities and related questions of access/justice and racial/gender equity.

As a preview of this event, last month's Tucson Streetcar readerboards featured "Metal Lungs / 3" by visiting author Monica Ong. Ong will give a multi-media mini reading and artist talk on October 7 here in the Hillman Odeum as a vehicle for creating dialogue among medical, humanities, and cultural communities on silences of the body.

From “Metal Lungs / 3”    

Breath (hers) never quite leaves the body,

but recedes into qi

native to the lungs

then gathers, searches for coordinates

mapping a red line across the border---

oxygen soldiers huddle in the

flora alveoli

quivering beneath the ribs

 summoning a call to action 

 

Ong's work of altered medical ephemera, text, and image art objects will be on display at the Poetry Center through October. 

    

Ong writes, "What makes this unique is that we created a GeoMap with over 20 sites across Tucson in a public "tour" of spaces where the poetry, cultural centers, and health resources for cultural silences are made visible. Each site is hosting an excerpt of "Silent Anatomies" and invites visitors to share the silenced histories of their body by texting a photo and story to a crowdsourced map called Digital Milagros. Beyond this exhilarating week, a digital archive of stories and resources will emerge, that I hope will become tools for more open conversations about the body in a variety of communities and settings."

This exciting assembly of community and transformation features many more events, which you can find via Kore Press.