JOHN UMSTEAD HOSPITAL (state mental health facility)
Butner, North Carolina, April 27, 2002

This installment of P.P.P. experimented explicitly with questions of collaboration and poetry as public service. Between January and April 2002, Katie and Amy Carroll visited the John Umstead Hospital, meeting with staff and patients to workshop patients' poetry. On April 27th, Kit Purdy, Pat McGonigle, Desirée Martín, Courtney Baker, Amy Carroll, Katie Carroll, Rob Turner and several patients and staff (whose names are withheld to maintain confidentiality) painted two of the patients' poems and two other poems on the walls of the facility. This project was influenced by a tradition of public art and poetry, but, in particular is indebted to Diamela Eltit and Paz Errazuritz's El infarto del alma (1994).

Click here to see the poems.