This week, we'd like to share a poem by Neil Marcus, an author and playwright who has been working to reshape ways of thinking about disability through his art. The poem here is called “Disabled Country.” A version of this poem is featured on the front page of the Smithsonian's permanent web exhibition, EveryBody: An Artifact History of Disability in America.
Marcus has generalized dystonia, a neurological movement disorder, which onset when he was eight years old. As he reached
adolescence, depression also set in, but with the help of
co-counseling, a confidential, peer-to-peer counseling that aids in
self-discovery, Marcus began to develop his performance aesthetic.
His mother was a musician and his father, a filmmaker, so perhaps it
is no surprise that Marcus found catharsis in the arts.
In the early 1980s, Marcus started a
street zine called “Special Effects”, which featured poetry and art based on his
experiences as a member of the disability rights and independent
living movements. One issue reads:
The most severely disabled person
in the world
Has an Intelligence
And humanity
So Precious that a society
of highly advanced robots
would travel Billions
of Light Years through
Space
And spend trillions of
dollars
In order to consult
with her
For the briefest moment
However, he is probably more well-known for his
performance art play, "Storm Reading", which was performed at the
Kennedy Center and featured on both NPR and the Today Show. The
award-winning play ran for nearly a decade.
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