FW: "Oregon State Hospital" by Roberto Cabrera
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Hello everyone! John here: ? As some of you may know, I’m the guest editor of Poem-a-Day for the month of July.? We are now midway through my curation.? Today we have something special—a Protactile poem! ? Roberto Cabrera’s chilling “Oregon State Hospital” is available here via a video with a voice-over of the English translation and the regular text feature.? This poem goes out to half a million readers today. ? PT stomps! Johna ? ?
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From: Poem-a-Day | Poets.org <poem-a-day@...> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2023 5:37 AM To: jlc@... Subject: "Oregon State Hospital" by Roberto Cabrera ? | ? ?
| Roberto Cabrera performs his Protactile poem “Oregon State Hospital” |
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translated from the Protactile by
Wandering in the museum
I came across a woman’s story. Let us conjure her up
in the form of a fist. First, they knocked her head
and they said, Tsk-tsk. Next, they zapped her
and they said, Huh. Next, they shone lights in her face
and they said, Phooey. Finally, they bored a hole here
and another here. Her head tilted gently to the side
and they said, Aha. |
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? Copyright ? 2023 by Roberto Cabrera. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 13, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.? |
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? ? ? Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast??? |
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“Being a Protactile educator via the DeafBlind Interpreting National Training and Resource Center (now known as the Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Program) comes with an opportunity to play the language of Protactile with a group of DeafBlind educators and a group of interpreters. In 2019, we took a field trip to Oregon State Hospital. The visit was a conversation starter, leading to the creation of an early draft of this poem.”
—Roberto Cabrera |
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? ? is a second-generation DeafBlind, Queer Dominican. He is known for his work as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, a community outreach specialist, an educator, and a trainer. |
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| “A Visit to the Asylum”?by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Thanks to , author of ?(W. W. Norton & Company, 2022), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays.??about Clark’s curatorial approach and find out more about our?.
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| “Poem-a-Day is brilliant because it makes space in the everyday racket for something as meaningful as a poem.” —Tracy K. Smith
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