The Refugia Project | Description

The Refugia Project was an interactive poetry installation by elders at the VNA assisted living facility on Highland Avenue in Somerville. The goal of the project was to make their work visible to passersby, creating an opportunity to encounter elders through their poems and to respond -- both to the work itself and to the material quality of old-fashioned handwork.

We enlarged the poems onto large white cardstock and hung them on clothesline so that passersby could easily read them. Attached with clothespins, the poems fluttered gently in the breeze, evoking the task of hanging out the laundry that most of this generation grew up with. The poems were accompanied by black and white photos of each resident. 

We set up two work tables, one with two manual typewriters and different types of paper, including lined notebook paper, brown paper bags, and rolls of adding machine tape, and another table with markers, pencils for letter writing and drawing. 

Some people wrote responses to give directly to the elders. Others wanted to take their poems and stories with them. All responses were photographed and included in an evolving material and digital archive. 

Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, July 2022.