My name is Denise Delgado, and I am a curator for the Miami-Dade Public Library System. For this show, I asked artists to read “The Girl Who Raised Pigeons,” a short story by Edward P. Jones, and create new work or contribute existing work that related to the story in some way. The work did not have to be an illustration of the story or make any literal references to it. Instead of asking people to respond to a broad theme like “homelessness” or “ideas of home,” I thought that narrowing the focus to a work of fiction could yield more nuanced and personal responses.
The story is about, yes, a young girl who raised pigeons--Betsy Ann--and her father, a taxi driver named Robert, who live on Myrtle Street in Washington D.C. in the late fifties and sixties. The neighborhood is described so vividly as to be its own character.
Here is an excerpt from the story:
In the early summer of 1960, there began a rumor among the children of Betsy Ann’s age that the railroad people were planning to take all the land around Myrtle Street, perhaps up to L Street and down to H Street. This rumor—unlike the summer rumor among Washington’s Negro children that Richard Nixon, if he were elected president, would make all the children go to school on Saturday from nine to twelve and cut their summer vacation in half—this rumor had a long life. And as the boys scraped their knuckles on the ground playing Poison, as the girls jumped rope until their bouncing plaits came loose, as the boys filled the neighborhood with the sounds of amateur hammering as they built skating trucks, as the girls made up talk for dolls with names they would one day bestow on their children, their conversations were flavored with lighthearted speculation about how far the railroad would go. When one child fell out with another, it became standard to try to hurt the other with the “true fact” that the railroad was going to take his or her home. “It’s a true fact, they called my daddy at his work and told him we could stay, but yall gotta go. Yall gotta.” And then the tormentor would stick out his or her tongue as far as it would go.
So, for the artists: What about the story—if anything--was in your head when you were making (or selecting) your work? Post your responses in the comments.
2 comments:
Well, here are a few thoughts:
Growing up as a child in Philly there were neighborhoods similar to the one described in the story. While reading, I saw people and felt textures from my own youth.
The rodents raiding the bird cage was a terrible image. I was surprised at the reaction of the Girl. The author was reserved in describing her reaction.
What I got from the entire story is
how fleeting the world is around us. We can seem protected or shielded for a moment but time plays itself out.
I tried to find the joy in the story. which I did by recalling my own childhood.
I also took away from the story, as Gary puts it, "how fleeting the world is around us." The story sends that message by Robert losing his wife, Betsy Ann losing her pigeons, and the constant fear of losing homes. It was the children who tried to "hurt the other with the 'true fact' that the railroad was going to take his or her home," Edward P. Jones explains. This makes me believe it was part of daily life to worry about your home being taken away.
I think the death of Robert's wife caused Robert and Betsy Ann to find personal attachments that was an escape from reality. The pigeons provided this for them. Betsy Ann's daily desire to see her pigeons and try to understand their world briefly let her escape from hers. And Robert had an obsession with protecting his daughter from feeling a sense of loss from finding a dead pigeon. He checked on the pigeons every morning before Betsy awoke so she would not have to feel such a sense of loss - as he did with his wife.
Relating this to my own life, the lesson I learned from this story is everybody owns something, or owns an idea, that gives us a sense of purpose and at least partially defines us. But in a fleeting moment, it can change so dramatically.
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