The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. In honor of the seven-decade-long fight for voting equality, this exhibition draws on collections from UC San Diego’s Archive for New Poetry to celebrate the creativity, empowerment, innovation, and risk-taking of twentieth- and twenty-first century women in poetry.
Among the outstanding pieces in the exhibition are several from Eileen Myles’s “8 Reasons Why You Should Write In Eileen Myles for President in ’92.” Included in her reasons are that she would refuse to live in the White House while there are homeless in America, she has an inclusive vision for the country, and, as a poet, she would write her own speeches. Other works include Natalie Diaz’s broadside “How the Milky Way Was Made,” Alice Notley’s masks and collages, Hannah Weiner’s complex “Journal of the Book of Revelations,” and Leslie Scalapino’s and Kiki Smith’s stunning The Animal Is in the World like Water in Water.
Organized by Nina Mamikunian, curator for the Archive for New Poetry, the exhibition is on view on the main floor of Geisel Library through March 29, 2020.
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