Description

The source text of these poems is comprised of novels from the 19th century featuring fugitive characters. These texts include: “”The Woman in White”” by Wilkie Collins, “The Female Vagrant” by William Wordworth, “”Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”” by Harriet Jacobs, “”Lady Audley’s Secret”” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, “”The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and “”Kidnapped!”” by Robert Louis Stevenson. The specific sites of the source text were chosen because they directly or indirectly referred to the biblical passage: “The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children.” For more on this passage, see Exodus 34:7, and Numbers 14:18. These poems were composed over the course of three weeks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during December 2014.